Couple of problems with that, most notably: It’s not what Americans want. Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution tweeted out a very nifty little video showing the spread of “Shall-Issue” and “Unrestricted Issue” right-to-carry laws — laws that make access to handguns easier — state by state across the U.S.A. from 1986 to the present.

Executive summary: Well-nigh the whole country was blanketed with “May-Issue” and “No-Issue” states thirty years ago, the most restrictive types of state law. Forward thirty years to the present. Pretty much the whole country is now “Unrestricted” or “Shall-Issue,” with a healthy minority of states in the “Unrestricted” category. Only a few hell-holes like New York State and California are still “May-Issue” restrictionists, and the “No-Issue” category has disappeared completely. The last “No-Issue” state was Illinois, which freed up its gun laws in 2013.

That’s the American people voting via their state representatives. they don’t want tighter gun control laws.

So the paucity of useful and/or interesting comment on the Florida shooting was obvious. Can I do any better? I’ll try.

First off, I’d note that these school shootings are a distinctly American thing. Yes, I know about the Australia shootings in 1996. That wasn’t a school, though. In fact if you go to the Wikipedia page titled “List of massacres in Australia” and try Ctrl-F “school,” you get no hits, although there are thirty massacres listed just for the past hundred years.

What do we do with that? Well, first let me confess I am laboring under a bias here. The bias is not deep-rooted: it arises from something I wrote recently, that is still in my mind — a book review that will appear at the VDARE.com website sometime in the next few days.

The book I reviewed has nothing to do with guns or social violence. It was in fact about China. I get all the China books to review. The author has much to say about the way Chinese people see the world and interact with each other, and with foreigners.

Well, here’s a thing I noted in my review: Mao Tse-tung’s revolution, for all its upheavals and horrors, had very little effect on China’s national psyche, perhaps none at all.

To speak of a “national psyche” nowadays, of course, is to trespass into the minefield of Political Incorrectness. The Scots are mean, we used to say blithely; the French are arrogant; the Germans are orderly; the Italians, excitable; the Russians, gloomy; the Irish, pugnacious; and so on.

Saying such things aloud in 2018 will get you horse-whipped on the steps of your club. But common observation suggests that there is some underlying reality to these unmentionable old perceptions, as is usually the case with stereotypes.

That’s speculative, but not wildly so. Following an earlier mass shooting four years ago, the human-science blogger JayMan, over at The Unz Review, posted a lengthy piece on guns and violence. [Guns & Violence, Again…, June 11, 2014] He included numerous maps and charts, and chewed over all possible aspects of the relationship between gun ownership and gun violence. He touches all the bases you’d think of: breaking out suicides from homicides, international comparisons, violence-prone minorities, levels of religiosity, and many others. For example this map of rates of gun ownership:

doesn’t relate to this map of rates of gun violence.

JayMan is an intelligent and learned guy, definitely no fanatic. He is, though, over towards the genetic-determinism end of the nature-nurture spectrum, as am I.

That’s where his inquiry lands up at last. It’s us, he concludes. It is, as the progressive schoolmarms like to say, “who we are.” Not just us Americans, but us, the different root stocks: Yankees, Appalachians, Tidewater folk, Westerners, and so on — JayMan has maps explaining that.

With fellow-citizens weeping for young lives lost, it sounds callous to say this, but it may none the less be true: We put up with dozens of dead victims of spree shooters every year because we’re Americans who regard it as the price of our liberty to own guns–just as we put up with thirty thousand road traffic deaths every year because we’re Americans who regard that as the price of our liberty to own personal transportation.

Probably there are things you might suggest we could do to reduce both those numbers. We’re not going to do them, though, because we’re Americans. That’s who we are.

These are the mysteries of national character. If you track them back in a systematic way, some of them have their roots in the folds and convolutions of population genetics. Take a few tens of thousands of people from the wild, scrappy Anglo-Scottish border country, or from the nonconformist congregations of eastern England, move them to distinct territories in North America — the Appalachians, New England — and leave them alone to continue breeding among themselves for a dozen further generations or so, you’ll get distinct personality types, that you might call Hillbillies or Yankees.

The precise way this works, the exact paths from individual human genome to individual human personality, is far from our present understanding.

ORDER IT NOW

As JayMan says, though: You don’t need to know the name of every worker in the factory to know that the place produces widgets. Everything we can measure about human personality and behavior has a heritable component, usually around fifty percent. Human societies are just the vector sum of lots of human personalities.

Sure, this is speculative. It’s less speculative than arm-flapping about mental health and broken families, though. There’s some real science in play: not enough to say dispositively that this is the last word, but enough to plant the strong suspicion that this is just who we are.

Enough also to encourage researchers to press on until we do have some clear understanding.

Oh, it’s solutions you’re wanting? I got solutions.

I note from the business news that Remington, the country’s most famous gun manufacturer, is in trouble, has in fact filed for bankruptcy. Source of the trouble? Collapsing sales.

There were spikes in gun sales following each of Barack Obama’s election victories, and another spike after the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012. Gun owners thought Obama would pass more restrictive gun laws, so they armored up while they could. With the election of Donald Trump, though, panic has subsided, and the long-term slow decline in gun ownership has resumed.[Why Donald Trump Is Bad for Gun Sales, By Sy Mukherjee,Forbes, September 11, 2017 and Once-Booming Gun Industry Now Recalibrating Under Trump, Associated Press (Forbes) April 1, 2017]

So there’s a solution to gun violence right there: Elect populist, gun-loving presidents, and gun ownership will decline. If you elect Progressive nanny-state presidents like Barack Obama, there’ll be more guns out there.

General Patton arose and strode swiftly to the microphone. The men snapped to their feet and stood silently. Patton surveyed the sea of brown with a grim look. "Be seated", he said. The words were not a request, but a command. The General's voice rose high and clear.

"Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight. When you, here, everyone of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American."

The General paused and looked over the crowd. "You are not all going to die," he said slowly. "Only two percent of you right here today would die in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men. Yes, every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he's not, he's a liar. Some men are cowards but they fight the same as the brave men or they get the hell slammed out of them watching men fight who are just as scared as they are. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared. Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire. For some, it takes an hour. For some, it takes days. But a real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood. Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base. Americans pride themselves on being He Men and they ARE He Men. Remember that the enemy is just as frightened as you are, and probably more so. They are not supermen."

"All through your Army careers, you men have bitched about what you call "chicken shit drilling". That, like everything else in this Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is alertness. Alertness must be bred into every soldier. I don't give a fuck for a man who's not always on his toes. You men are veterans or you wouldn't be here. You are ready for what's to come. A man must be alert at all times if he expects to stay alive. If you're not alert, sometime, a German son-of-an-asshole-bitch is going to sneak up behind you and beat you to death with a sockful of shit!" The men roared in agreement.

Patton's grim expression did not change. "There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily", he roared into the microphone, "All because one man went to sleep on the job". He paused and the men grew silent. "But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did". The General clutched the microphone tightly, his jaw out-thrust, and he continued, "An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don't know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking!"

The men slapped their legs and rolled in glee. This was Patton as the men had imagined him to be, and in rare form, too. He hadn't let them down. He was all that he was cracked up to be, and more. He had IT!

"We have the finest food, the finest equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world", Patton bellowed. He lowered his head and shook it pensively. Suddenly he snapped erect, faced the men belligerently and thundered, "Why, by God, I actually pity those poor sons-of-bitches we're going up against. By God, I do". The men clapped and howled delightedly. There would be many a barracks tale about the "Old Man's" choice phrases. They would become part and parcel of Third Army's history and they would become the bible of their slang.

"My men don't surrender", Patton continued, "I don't want to hear of any soldier under my command being captured unless he has been hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight back. That's not just bull shit either. The kind of man that I want in my command is just like the lieutenant in Libya, who, with a Luger against his chest, jerked off his helmet, swept the gun aside with one hand, and busted the hell out of the Kraut with his helmet. Then he jumped on the gun and went out and killed another German before they knew what the hell was coming off. And, all of that time, this man had a bullet through a lung. There was a real man!"

Patton stopped and the crowd waited. He continued more quietly, "All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters, either. Every single man in this Army plays a vital role. Don't ever let up. Don't ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain. What if every truck driver suddenly decided that he didn't like the whine of those shells overhead, turned yellow, and jumped headlong into a ditch? The cowardly bastard could say, "Hell, they won't miss me, just one man in thousands". But, what if every man thought that way? Where in the hell would we be now? What would our country, our loved ones, our homes, even the world, be like? No, Goddamnit, Americans don't think like that. Every man does his job. Every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important in the vast scheme of this war. The ordnance men are needed to supply the guns and machinery of war to keep us rolling. The Quartermaster is needed to bring up food and clothes because where we are going there isn't a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man on K.P. has a job to do, even the one who heats our water to keep us from getting the 'G.I. Shits'."

Patton paused, took a deep breath, and continued, "Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don't want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. One of the bravest men that I ever saw was a fellow on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of a furious fire fight in Tunisia. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at a time like that. He answered, "Fixing the wire, Sir". I asked, "Isn't that a little unhealthy right about now?" He answered, "Yes Sir, but the Goddamned wire has to be fixed". I asked, "Don't those planes strafing the road bother you?" And he answered, "No, Sir, but you sure as hell do!" Now, there was a real man. A real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time, no matter how great the odds. And you should have seen those trucks on the road to Tunisia. Those drivers were magnificent. All day and all night they rolled over those son-of-a-bitching roads, never stopping, never faltering from their course, with shells bursting all around them all of the time. We got through on good old American guts. Many of those men drove for over forty consecutive hours. These men weren't combat men, but they were soldiers with a job to do. They did it, and in one hell of a way they did it. They were part of a team. Without team effort, without them, the fight would have been lost. All of the links in the chain pulled together and the chain became unbreakable."

http://www.pattonhq.com/speech.html

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If I were running Chicago, I'd be a lot more worried about typical citizens with guns than gangsters. The gangs will shoot each other, deal drugs, and otherwise leave everyone else alone. But normal citizens might do something crazy, like athens in '46 or Wilmington in '98.

I wonder if Mr. Derbyshire is saying the same thing as another Englishman said, almost a hundred years ago. Of course, that guy was hardly a fan of America.

“The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.”

― D.H. Lawrence

http://staticnet.adjara.com/moviecontent/7233/covers/980x530-7233.jpg

General Patton arose and strode swiftly to the microphone. The men snapped to their feet and stood silently. Patton surveyed the sea of brown with a grim look. “Be seated”, he said. The words were not a request, but a command. The General’s voice rose high and clear.

“Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight. When you, here, everyone of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American.”

The General paused and looked over the crowd. “You are not all going to die,” he said slowly. “Only two percent of you right here today would die in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men. Yes, every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he’s not, he’s a liar. Some men are cowards but they fight the same as the brave men or they get the hell slammed out of them watching men fight who are just as scared as they are. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared. Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire. For some, it takes an hour. For some, it takes days. But a real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood. Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base. Americans pride themselves on being He Men and they ARE He Men. Remember that the enemy is just as frightened as you are, and probably more so. They are not supermen.”

[MORE]

“All through your Army careers, you men have bitched about what you call “chicken shit drilling”. That, like everything else in this Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is alertness. Alertness must be bred into every soldier. I don’t give a fuck for a man who’s not always on his toes. You men are veterans or you wouldn’t be here. You are ready for what’s to come. A man must be alert at all times if he expects to stay alive. If you’re not alert, sometime, a German son-of-an-asshole-bitch is going to sneak up behind you and beat you to death with a sockful of shit!” The men roared in agreement.

Patton’s grim expression did not change. “There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily”, he roared into the microphone, “All because one man went to sleep on the job”. He paused and the men grew silent. “But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did”. The General clutched the microphone tightly, his jaw out-thrust, and he continued, “An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don’t know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking!”

The men slapped their legs and rolled in glee. This was Patton as the men had imagined him to be, and in rare form, too. He hadn’t let them down. He was all that he was cracked up to be, and more. He had IT!

“We have the finest food, the finest equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world”, Patton bellowed. He lowered his head and shook it pensively. Suddenly he snapped erect, faced the men belligerently and thundered, “Why, by God, I actually pity those poor sons-of-bitches we’re going up against. By God, I do”. The men clapped and howled delightedly. There would be many a barracks tale about the “Old Man’s” choice phrases. They would become part and parcel of Third Army’s history and they would become the bible of their slang.

“My men don’t surrender”, Patton continued, “I don’t want to hear of any soldier under my command being captured unless he has been hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight back. That’s not just bull shit either. The kind of man that I want in my command is just like the lieutenant in Libya, who, with a Luger against his chest, jerked off his helmet, swept the gun aside with one hand, and busted the hell out of the Kraut with his helmet. Then he jumped on the gun and went out and killed another German before they knew what the hell was coming off. And, all of that time, this man had a bullet through a lung. There was a real man!”

Patton stopped and the crowd waited. He continued more quietly, “All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters, either. Every single man in this Army plays a vital role. Don’t ever let up. Don’t ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain. What if every truck driver suddenly decided that he didn’t like the whine of those shells overhead, turned yellow, and jumped headlong into a ditch? The cowardly bastard could say, “Hell, they won’t miss me, just one man in thousands”. But, what if every man thought that way? Where in the hell would we be now? What would our country, our loved ones, our homes, even the world, be like? No, Goddamnit, Americans don’t think like that. Every man does his job. Every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important in the vast scheme of this war. The ordnance men are needed to supply the guns and machinery of war to keep us rolling. The Quartermaster is needed to bring up food and clothes because where we are going there isn’t a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man on K.P. has a job to do, even the one who heats our water to keep us from getting the ‘G.I. Shits’.”

Patton paused, took a deep breath, and continued, “Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don’t want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. One of the bravest men that I ever saw was a fellow on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of a furious fire fight in Tunisia. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at a time like that. He answered, “Fixing the wire, Sir”. I asked, “Isn’t that a little unhealthy right about now?” He answered, “Yes Sir, but the Goddamned wire has to be fixed”. I asked, “Don’t those planes strafing the road bother you?” And he answered, “No, Sir, but you sure as hell do!” Now, there was a real man. A real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time, no matter how great the odds. And you should have seen those trucks on the road to Tunisia. Those drivers were magnificent. All day and all night they rolled over those son-of-a-bitching roads, never stopping, never faltering from their course, with shells bursting all around them all of the time. We got through on good old American guts. Many of those men drove for over forty consecutive hours. These men weren’t combat men, but they were soldiers with a job to do. They did it, and in one hell of a way they did it. They were part of a team. Without team effort, without them, the fight would have been lost. All of the links in the chain pulled together and the chain became unbreakable.”

....proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.

I would follow either of these leaders into Hell--and I am neither military nor a man.

The men of WWII were my barber, grocer, teachers, milkmen and about every other innocuous adult male I met growing up in the sixties as a kid. Of course I didn't realize I was speaking to perhaps the last large body of "men" in western civilization.

Professor Cut 'n Paste left out out the concluding paragraphs of this fine speech by one of America's most famous psychopaths:

"And men, if my previous speech full of self-serving bromides did not convince you of the necessity of abandoning your individualites and individual consciences concerning this war, then remember this: you are my property, to dispose of when and where I please. You are basically farm animals, owned in toto by the U.S. Army, and my membership in the elite gives me the power to use your sorry asses in the service of my ego and ambition, as I see fit.

Never lose sight of the fact, men, that you are here under duress, and refusal to obey (however admirable may be the moral objection or individual pang of conscience motivating the disobedience) will be punished by a stiff term in prison. Further disobedience there will probably result in time the straightjacket, made famous by Jack London in that novel, whatever the hell it was called. I understand they also have developed other very creative methods of coercion, some involving pliers...brave men, prison guards...but I digress. In other words, men: just don't do it. Be the sort of masculine creature lacking actual manhood that I described earlier in my speech, and you will do just fine.

In conclusion, all of you, brave men and cowards alike, will face battle today; no doubt you will all aquit yourselves in the fashion of the True American: a quarter-educated barbarian convinced he is superior to the rest of the world, totally lacking in original thought and the moral sense (to the extent we have been able to beat those things out of your worthless hides, both in school and here in the Army) and willing and able to be manipulated and led by careerist pricks like myself. But Real Men, all. And so obedient!

Remember, as I said, only 2% of you will die, but a great many more of you will be critically wounded, or suffer disfiguring wounds and quite possibly the loss of your nutsack and dingus (although that is something of a paradox, as if you still had these things you would not be standing here like cattle listening to my bullshit). Remember, we are here to save Europe from the spectre of facism...brave men, fascists...they really do know how to fix the wire and drive like hell..."[here the General had to stop and take his medication]

There are actually dozens of legislative approaches that might reduce the risk of school massacres.

For example, if someone had called the FBI and informed them that Cruz was possibly planning to assassinate the POTUS, then you can be fairly sure that the FBI would have jumped into action instead of lackadaisically ignoring the complaint and not even bringing it to the attention of the Miami FBI office.

Now perhaps there is a good reason for this, for example that the FBI receives so many notifications of possible school killers, that it cannot possibly follow up on any of them when it has important stuff to do like investigating Hillary Clinton’s emails.

However with changes in the law designating potential school shooters as the same status as potential presidential assassins, resources could be allocated to identifying possible school shooters and ensuring that they don’t have access to weapons of mass destruction.

Or, for example, if all of the nation’s schoolteachers were to act en masse to use one of their interminable planning days usefully to march on their respective state capitols to demand action to improve security in their workplaces, and follow up with nationwide strike actions, then you can bet that the NRA and the legislators who love them would be toast.

You see, things can change. At one time big band music was the main form of popular music and every juke box was playing Glenn Miller, but things changed. Now I still listen to big band music, but most Americans don’t.

Security used to be casual on US airlines until 9/11 and the same politicians who support the NRA wanted “less government” but now we have the TSA, because politicians fly a lot.

I don’t think it is necessarily that the majority of Americans support the status quo, but just that they are a silent majority and too politically inert to bother to do anything. But that could change when the right catalyst or the right leader comes along.

" you can bet that the NRA and the legislators who love them would be toast."

And yet here we are, with billionaires like Bloomberg and the entire news media shilling for TPTB in another MAXIMUM effort to destroy gun ownership. They have once again begun using language manipulation to attempt to sway the public: we have gone from "Gun Control" to "Gun Safety" to something new that I'm now hearing on public radio; "Gun Reforms." Pretty not-so-clever, as it is now totally transparent. The enemy is ALWAYS at the gates when it comes to the Second Amendment.

" same politicians who support the NRA wanted “less government” but now we have the TSA, because politicians fly a lot."

LOL.

"The TSA was created as a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Its first administrator, John Magaw, was nominated by President Bush on December 10, 2001, and confirmed by the Senate the following January. The agency's proponents, including Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, argued that only a single federal agency would better protect air travel than the private companies who operated under contract to single airlines or groups of airlines that used a given terminal facility.

"Private screening did not disappear under the TSA, which allows airports to opt out of federal screening and hire firms to do the job instead. Such firms must still get TSA approval under its Screening Partnership Program (SPP) and follow TSA procedures.[7] Among the U.S. airports with privately operated checkpoints are San Francisco International Airport; Kansas City International Airport; Greater Rochester International Airport; Tupelo Regional Airport; Key West International Airport; Charles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport; and Jackson Hole Airport.

If you go looking for high-school shoot-’em-ups worldwide, far as I can see you come up totally dry, notwithstanding the fact that plenty of nations have more open attitudes to private gun ownership than we do —Switzerland and Israel, to name two. (See Democrat: “The State Ought to Have a Monopoly on Legitimate Violence” » Swiss girls with guns, The Patriot Perspective, December 22, 2012 and How common is it for Jewish women in Israel to carry military grade rifles as fashion accessories?, Quora.com, August 24, 2014, and the photographs at right.)

No. I’m guessing the Israeli link is a nothingburger, with no hard facts to back up what you write. Last I heard, Israel had the typically Jewish socialist attitude toward gun ownership. I.e., the gov’t decides who gets to carry guns, and I’m not talking about hard-and-fast rules about ex-cons.

I’d love to be wrong, so new info is welcome. I just don’t feel like reading some stupid quora page.

“if someone had called the FBI and informed them that Cruz was possibly planning to assassinate the POTUS, then you can be fairly sure that the FBI would have jumped into action”: yeah, they’d have recruited him.

From my perspective, the US is too powerful (mostly for reasons of historical circumstance involving Americans having killed and/or expropriated the primitive inhabitants of an entire largely unexploited continent and used the resulting position of immense wealth and continental security to watch from a safe distance as the old powers destroyed themselves, with some US dabbling to encourage the right results, for the US’s purposes, from afar) and its excessive power is a source of many problems in the world. So I tend to focus on what’s wrong with the US and its behaviour.

But issues like this remind me that there clearly are unique strengths to American society (as every nation has its unique strengths and weaknesses). Primarily, in the case of American culture, those are embodied in the First and Second Amendments to the US Constitution, and the way these have been interpreted over time.

The private right to own weapons for the purpose of household and family protection (handguns in particular) is non-existent in many countries, often as a result of sentimental manipulation of opinion in response to shock crimes such as Dunblane. The right to speak freely is increasingly restricted in most of the rest of the world, from “holocaust denial” to antiracist and other political correctness enforcing speechcrime laws.

Credit where it is due, the US still lags behind in those encroaching tyrannies to which much of the rest of the world is falling. Not for lack of effort on the part of the gun grabbers and the wannabe censors, either.

I would submit that most of the native inhabitants of North America perished under the management and direction of the King of England. Yes Americans killed many too but unlike India, where the Brits starved to death anywhere from 50-100 million people, the natives here had weapons and fought back impressively, if not ruthlessly. In India, the natives were disarmed and instead faced a grisly, slow death, while not a single Brit there ever missed a meal.

As for U.S. power, I totally agree -- we're too powerful. Time to exit NATO and tell the Brits and French to get stuffed.

And iirc there were similar cases in Finland.
Obviously such cases are more frequent in the US because of the easier availability of guns (which is unlikely to ever change). I do wonder though why such mass shootings seem to have become so much more frequent from the 1980s onwards. There must be some cultural explanation for this.

German media is consistantly screaming at the Americans that they must change their gun laws to comply with the restrictive German standards.

The know-it-all German "Besserwisser" obviously think that they rule the world, and that their concepts of morality and civility must be adopted world-wide in order for mankind to survive within a leftist "Gutmensch" socialistic tyranny. "Am deutschen Wesen soll die Welt genesen".

They, the deutsche "Besserwisser" are also demanding that the US eliminate it's electoral college system as it was the cause for their Liebling HC losing to the incarnation of evil : DT

The deutsche "Besserwisser" apparently think that US election system was concieved two-hundred years ago for the purpose of installing DT, whom they hate with a vengence, into the WH.

The Derb should have watched Jesse Watters and Jeanine Pirro on Sat. night before writing this piece. (Granted, the judge was a bit vehement, hysterical, histrionic and overwrought, as usual, but she was right, essentially, as usual.) This atrocity could have been easily prevented. Given his behavior, ceaselessly for years and years, most of which was insane and much of which was criminal, this lunatic should have been in an insane asylum or the mental ward of a prison rather than free to buy an arsenal of weapons and commit mass murder. And as Watters, or someone else, noted, liberals who claim such shootings are unique to the U.S. because of the 2nd Amendment and NRA don't understand what per-capita means -but the Derb surely does.

And iirc there were similar cases in Finland.Obviously such cases are more frequent in the US because of the easier availability of guns (which is unlikely to ever change). I do wonder though why such mass shootings seem to have become so much more frequent from the 1980s onwards. There must be some cultural explanation for this.

German media is consistantly screaming at the Americans that they must change their gun laws to comply with the restrictive German standards.

The know-it-all German “Besserwisser” obviously think that they rule the world, and that their concepts of morality and civility must be adopted world-wide in order for mankind to survive within a leftist “Gutmensch” socialistic tyranny. “Am deutschen Wesen soll die Welt genesen”.

They, the deutsche “Besserwisser” are also demanding that the US eliminate it’s electoral college system as it was the cause for their Liebling HC losing to the incarnation of evil : DT

The deutsche “Besserwisser” apparently think that US election system was concieved two-hundred years ago for the purpose of installing DT, whom they hate with a vengence, into the WH.

Hard for me to see the logic in Derbyshire’s appeal to a genetic trait of violence when the supposed killer’s last name is Cruz. Maybe his Scotch-Irish parents changed it from Cruikshank to blend in better with the new arrivals from below the border?

Kid was adopted, may be a Russian orphan with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and/or Attachment deficiency issues. Acted out for years, including assaulting his adoptive mother.

Sad case, but at this point a person like that is like a rabid animal; you've got to save others who still CAN be saved. One school shooting in West Virginia was stopped cold because the teacher had a gun in his truck.

And yes, I know about the school killings that same year [1996] in Dunblane, Scotland. Not to pick nits, but that was an elementary school (and done with handguns…

The U.K. banned all handguns except .22 caliber after that, and then a year later banned the .22′s also if I understand it correctly.

What’s most remarkable to me though, as an American, is that self-defense was ALREADY not allowed as a reason for owning a gun, well before that massacre occurred. You could only own guns for target shooting at gun clubs, and a few other reasons like animal control.

Here’s the relevant passage in the Dunblane Inquiry report from http://www.gov.uk. At first I did a Ctrl-F for “self-defense” and got not hits, but then remembered the British spelling of “defence”:

9.28 In the United States of America there are and have been strongly opposed views on either side of the debate concerning gun control. According to the submission of Mr Stevenson many criminologists in the United States had reached the position that they believed that the possession of firearms had a positive effect in discouraging crime and limiting its adverse effect – either through the victim being able to defend himself or through the assailant achieving early control. Mr Stevenson sought to point out that a number of countries had enjoyed advantages from such an approach to gun availability. Thus in the United States burglars were reluctant to break into occupied domestic property. However, in Great Britain there had been no acceptance of this approach, although it was notable that in rural areas where farmers are known to possess shot guns there was a lower level of housebreaking.

9.29 In this country the possession of firearms for self-defence has not, except in special cases, been regarded for many years as a “good reason” for their possession and there never has been a policy of facilitating, let alone encouraging, the acquisition of firearms to discourage crime or limit its effects. Different countries may require to tackle their problems in different ways. In Great Britain the level of firearm ownership is relatively low. I do not see anything in the net benefit argument which is relevant to this country.

When I owned a rifle in Britain of course it was for target shooting. (Well, that and any Russian paratroopers.) If I'd lived in the middle of nowhere and wanted a shotgun for defence against burglars I'd have said I wanted it for shooting vermin, which was the usual reason given. Vermin indeed.

Well you are talking about a country whose elites were and mostly are quite happy for a lone farmer to be convicted of murder for shooting a scumbag burgling his remote house in the dead of night, merely because he shot at him (in pitch dark) in the seconds after he had turned to run having been confronted by someone willing and able to defend his property against human hyenas, rather than the helpless and disarmed victims they would normally have expected to encounter. The charge was only reduced to manslaughter because he claimed paranoia after extensive previous criminal predation attempts, but the conviction and a prison sentence stood.

I'm out of step with most of my compatriots on this, because I have zero sympathy with the kind of scumbag who will invade a home after dark with criminal intent, and I regard the deaths of such people as a benefit to society, not a loss to be deterred. I recognise that the death penalty or allowing execution out of hand would have their own problems, but I don't see why we can't just rejoice when a heat of the moment event relieves us of the costs of imprisonment and of the likely future criminal and generally antisocial lives of the scumbags in question once they are out of their brief prison terms.

Imo it's a shame he didn't get the other one as well (see the Wikipedia article linked which mentions him in passing, and see if you don't agree with me).

There are actually dozens of legislative approaches that might reduce the risk of school massacres.

For example, if someone had called the FBI and informed them that Cruz was possibly planning to assassinate the POTUS, then you can be fairly sure that the FBI would have jumped into action instead of lackadaisically ignoring the complaint and not even bringing it to the attention of the Miami FBI office.

Now perhaps there is a good reason for this, for example that the FBI receives so many notifications of possible school killers, that it cannot possibly follow up on any of them when it has important stuff to do like investigating Hillary Clinton's emails.

However with changes in the law designating potential school shooters as the same status as potential presidential assassins, resources could be allocated to identifying possible school shooters and ensuring that they don't have access to weapons of mass destruction.

Or, for example, if all of the nation's schoolteachers were to act en masse to use one of their interminable planning days usefully to march on their respective state capitols to demand action to improve security in their workplaces, and follow up with nationwide strike actions, then you can bet that the NRA and the legislators who love them would be toast.

You see, things can change. At one time big band music was the main form of popular music and every juke box was playing Glenn Miller, but things changed. Now I still listen to big band music, but most Americans don't.

Security used to be casual on US airlines until 9/11 and the same politicians who support the NRA wanted "less government" but now we have the TSA, because politicians fly a lot.

I don't think it is necessarily that the majority of Americans support the status quo, but just that they are a silent majority and too politically inert to bother to do anything. But that could change when the right catalyst or the right leader comes along.

” you can bet that the NRA and the legislators who love them would be toast.”

And yet here we are, with billionaires like Bloomberg and the entire news media shilling for TPTB in another MAXIMUM effort to destroy gun ownership. They have once again begun using language manipulation to attempt to sway the public: we have gone from “Gun Control” to “Gun Safety” to something new that I’m now hearing on public radio; “Gun Reforms.” Pretty not-so-clever, as it is now totally transparent. The enemy is ALWAYS at the gates when it comes to the Second Amendment.

” same politicians who support the NRA wanted “less government” but now we have the TSA, because politicians fly a lot.”

LOL.

“The TSA was created as a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Its first administrator, John Magaw, was nominated by President Bush on December 10, 2001, and confirmed by the Senate the following January. The agency’s proponents, including Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, argued that only a single federal agency would better protect air travel than the private companies who operated under contract to single airlines or groups of airlines that used a given terminal facility.

“Private screening did not disappear under the TSA, which allows airports to opt out of federal screening and hire firms to do the job instead. Such firms must still get TSA approval under its Screening Partnership Program (SPP) and follow TSA procedures.[7] Among the U.S. airports with privately operated checkpoints are San Francisco International Airport; Kansas City International Airport; Greater Rochester International Airport; Tupelo Regional Airport; Key West International Airport; Charles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport; and Jackson Hole Airport.

I thought when Derb brought up China he’d segue into a discussion of Chinese school stabbings, which are rather common, quite vicious and underreported in the Western media. But instead, he pivoted into a weird analysis of allegedly inbred hillbillies from Kentucky and Tennessee. I think you’ll find most of these “rednecks” are in fact quite peaceful, although most of them are handy with a bolt-action rifle.

Also, the Remington Ch. 11 filing may be a bit more complicated than Derb lets on. Remington is fighting a class-action suit over an allegedly faulty rifle and could face a $500 million payout. A bankruptcy filing may at least buy them time from the grasping meat hooks of the trial lawyers, and I hope Remington ends up paying out nothing. They’re an iconic American company.

Certainly when there is a mass school shooting that is a tragedy. But the notion that gun control will solve all of our problems is, I think, somewhat silly.

Mexico has very strict gun control laws, and an official per-capita homicide rate that is at least three times that of the US. And no, these guns mostly don’t come from the US, they come from places like China and Guatemala. And there are lots of other countries around the world with strict gun control laws and sky-high murder rates… The United States is very far from being unique as far as gun-related homicides.

The bottom line: perhaps gun control laws would tend to reduce homicide. Maybe Mexico would be even worse without their gun control laws. But the bottom line is: no, it’s not history. It’s whether the society is stable and people feel like they have a place in it. Today Japan has virtually rock-bottom homicide rates. If every Japanese was issued an AK47, I expect that the homicide rate would hardly budge (although suicides might spike). However, before WWII, when an exploding population had crushed the populace into misery, Japan was unstable and dangerous and at risk of falling apart into chaos.

In America, the homicide rate for heavily armed middle class people with stable jobs is about at the level of western europe. It’s poverty – and not poverty so much, as hopelessness and feeling adrift and young men not seeing a realistic path where they can earn an honest living and support a family in some measure of dignity. And that’s true everywhere and with every people.

Certainly when there is a mass school shooting that is a tragedy. But the notion that gun control will solve all of our problems is, I think, somewhat silly.

Let individual school districts decide what precautions they want to implement to prevent school shootings, and let's see what works best. Some will have teachers with 6-shooters on their hip, others will have TSA type security at the entrances and ADT alarms with hair triggers. Others may declare gun-free zones within several hundred feet of schools, just like for sexual predators.

Make verbal threats to shoot up a school a federal offense similar to threatening the life of a President, so that anyone identified as a threat is banned from possession of weapons and required to report weekly to a probation officer or police.

For all of Mexico’s strict gun control laws the drug cartels easily find a way around them. The NRA and second amendment groups and supporters throw this up in the faces of liberals all the time and they dance around it and change the subject since it destroys their specious claims of “sensible” gun laws = peace and tranquility.

From my perspective, the US is too powerful (mostly for reasons of historical circumstance involving Americans having killed and/or expropriated the primitive inhabitants of an entire largely unexploited continent and used the resulting position of immense wealth and continental security to watch from a safe distance as the old powers destroyed themselves, with some US dabbling to encourage the right results, for the US's purposes, from afar) and its excessive power is a source of many problems in the world. So I tend to focus on what's wrong with the US and its behaviour.

But issues like this remind me that there clearly are unique strengths to American society (as every nation has its unique strengths and weaknesses). Primarily, in the case of American culture, those are embodied in the First and Second Amendments to the US Constitution, and the way these have been interpreted over time.

The private right to own weapons for the purpose of household and family protection (handguns in particular) is non-existent in many countries, often as a result of sentimental manipulation of opinion in response to shock crimes such as Dunblane. The right to speak freely is increasingly restricted in most of the rest of the world, from "holocaust denial" to antiracist and other political correctness enforcing speechcrime laws.

Credit where it is due, the US still lags behind in those encroaching tyrannies to which much of the rest of the world is falling. Not for lack of effort on the part of the gun grabbers and the wannabe censors, either.

I would submit that most of the native inhabitants of North America perished under the management and direction of the King of England. Yes Americans killed many too but unlike India, where the Brits starved to death anywhere from 50-100 million people, the natives here had weapons and fought back impressively, if not ruthlessly. In India, the natives were disarmed and instead faced a grisly, slow death, while not a single Brit there ever missed a meal.

As for U.S. power, I totally agree — we’re too powerful. Time to exit NATO and tell the Brits and French to get stuffed.

I would submit that most of the native inhabitants of North America perished under the management and direction of the King of England.

"Management and direction" is hugely overstating the situation, but certainly much of the disease losses resulting from initial contact with the advanced world came before the US existed. However apart from the 13 colonies most of the continental US was barely touched before 1776 by the future Americans who had done most of the dirty work under the remote "management and direction" of the English state.

Yes Americans killed many too but unlike India, where the Brits starved to death anywhere from 50-100 million people, the natives here had weapons and fought back impressively, if not ruthlessly. In India, the natives were disarmed and instead faced a grisly, slow death, while not a single Brit there ever missed a meal.

Passing swiftly over the events of the Indian Mutiny, the relevant point is just to be clear on the practical reasons why the US became so wealthy and powerful so quickly. The application of the advances of the European scientific and industrial revolutions to the vast wealth of a stolen continent is pretty much sufficient, with the subsequent benefits of continental security, to substantially explain it.

As for U.S. power, I totally agree — we’re too powerful. Time to exit NATO and tell the Brits and French to get stuffed.

Good that we're in agreement. Don't let the door catch you on the way out.....

While you're about it, it's long past time for us to exit NATO as well, and tell the French and Germans to get stuffed.

General Patton arose and strode swiftly to the microphone. The men snapped to their feet and stood silently. Patton surveyed the sea of brown with a grim look. "Be seated", he said. The words were not a request, but a command. The General's voice rose high and clear.

"Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight. When you, here, everyone of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American."

The General paused and looked over the crowd. "You are not all going to die," he said slowly. "Only two percent of you right here today would die in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men. Yes, every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he's not, he's a liar. Some men are cowards but they fight the same as the brave men or they get the hell slammed out of them watching men fight who are just as scared as they are. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared. Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire. For some, it takes an hour. For some, it takes days. But a real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood. Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base. Americans pride themselves on being He Men and they ARE He Men. Remember that the enemy is just as frightened as you are, and probably more so. They are not supermen."

"All through your Army careers, you men have bitched about what you call "chicken shit drilling". That, like everything else in this Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is alertness. Alertness must be bred into every soldier. I don't give a fuck for a man who's not always on his toes. You men are veterans or you wouldn't be here. You are ready for what's to come. A man must be alert at all times if he expects to stay alive. If you're not alert, sometime, a German son-of-an-asshole-bitch is going to sneak up behind you and beat you to death with a sockful of shit!" The men roared in agreement.

Patton's grim expression did not change. "There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily", he roared into the microphone, "All because one man went to sleep on the job". He paused and the men grew silent. "But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did". The General clutched the microphone tightly, his jaw out-thrust, and he continued, "An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don't know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking!"

The men slapped their legs and rolled in glee. This was Patton as the men had imagined him to be, and in rare form, too. He hadn't let them down. He was all that he was cracked up to be, and more. He had IT!

"We have the finest food, the finest equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world", Patton bellowed. He lowered his head and shook it pensively. Suddenly he snapped erect, faced the men belligerently and thundered, "Why, by God, I actually pity those poor sons-of-bitches we're going up against. By God, I do". The men clapped and howled delightedly. There would be many a barracks tale about the "Old Man's" choice phrases. They would become part and parcel of Third Army's history and they would become the bible of their slang.

"My men don't surrender", Patton continued, "I don't want to hear of any soldier under my command being captured unless he has been hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight back. That's not just bull shit either. The kind of man that I want in my command is just like the lieutenant in Libya, who, with a Luger against his chest, jerked off his helmet, swept the gun aside with one hand, and busted the hell out of the Kraut with his helmet. Then he jumped on the gun and went out and killed another German before they knew what the hell was coming off. And, all of that time, this man had a bullet through a lung. There was a real man!"

Patton stopped and the crowd waited. He continued more quietly, "All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters, either. Every single man in this Army plays a vital role. Don't ever let up. Don't ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain. What if every truck driver suddenly decided that he didn't like the whine of those shells overhead, turned yellow, and jumped headlong into a ditch? The cowardly bastard could say, "Hell, they won't miss me, just one man in thousands". But, what if every man thought that way? Where in the hell would we be now? What would our country, our loved ones, our homes, even the world, be like? No, Goddamnit, Americans don't think like that. Every man does his job. Every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important in the vast scheme of this war. The ordnance men are needed to supply the guns and machinery of war to keep us rolling. The Quartermaster is needed to bring up food and clothes because where we are going there isn't a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man on K.P. has a job to do, even the one who heats our water to keep us from getting the 'G.I. Shits'."

Patton paused, took a deep breath, and continued, "Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don't want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. One of the bravest men that I ever saw was a fellow on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of a furious fire fight in Tunisia. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at a time like that. He answered, "Fixing the wire, Sir". I asked, "Isn't that a little unhealthy right about now?" He answered, "Yes Sir, but the Goddamned wire has to be fixed". I asked, "Don't those planes strafing the road bother you?" And he answered, "No, Sir, but you sure as hell do!" Now, there was a real man. A real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time, no matter how great the odds. And you should have seen those trucks on the road to Tunisia. Those drivers were magnificent. All day and all night they rolled over those son-of-a-bitching roads, never stopping, never faltering from their course, with shells bursting all around them all of the time. We got through on good old American guts. Many of those men drove for over forty consecutive hours. These men weren't combat men, but they were soldiers with a job to do. They did it, and in one hell of a way they did it. They were part of a team. Without team effort, without them, the fight would have been lost. All of the links in the chain pulled together and the chain became unbreakable."

http://www.pattonhq.com/speech.html

I think that’s up there with:

….proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.

I would follow either of these leaders into Hell–and I am neither military nor a man.

Hard for me to see the logic in Derbyshire's appeal to a genetic trait of violence when the supposed killer's last name is Cruz. Maybe his Scotch-Irish parents changed it from Cruikshank to blend in better with the new arrivals from below the border?

Kid was adopted, may be a Russian orphan with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and/or Attachment deficiency issues. Acted out for years, including assaulting his adoptive mother.

Sad case, but at this point a person like that is like a rabid animal; you’ve got to save others who still CAN be saved. One school shooting in West Virginia was stopped cold because the teacher had a gun in his truck.

Kid was adopted, may be a Russian orphan with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and/or Attachment deficiency issues.

He's a few years too young to be representative of the Romanian version.

Jennifer Roback Morse and her husband adopted a tw0-year-old boy from Romania, then immediately learned she was pregnant. (They'd been struggling with infertility for years.) To her, an academic economist, this was the perfect controlled experiment: a feral boy and a normal girl in one household. She's spoken and written about how the most basic things we take for granted with our own children had to be dealt more elaborately with him.

The Morses are quite smart and on top of things quickly, and this kid is fine and prospering now. But a more average adoptive couple, of foreign background themselves (are his Cruzes Cuban?), could let a lot of warning signs slip through the cracks.

Hard for me to see the logic in Derbyshire's appeal to a genetic trait of violence when the supposed killer's last name is Cruz. Maybe his Scotch-Irish parents changed it from Cruikshank to blend in better with the new arrivals from below the border?

And yes, I know about the school killings that same year [1996] in Dunblane, Scotland. Not to pick nits, but that was an elementary school (and done with handguns...

The U.K. banned all handguns except .22 caliber after that, and then a year later banned the .22's also if I understand it correctly.

What's most remarkable to me though, as an American, is that self-defense was ALREADY not allowed as a reason for owning a gun, well before that massacre occurred. You could only own guns for target shooting at gun clubs, and a few other reasons like animal control.

Here's the relevant passage in the Dunblane Inquiry report from www.gov.uk. At first I did a Ctrl-F for "self-defense" and got not hits, but then remembered the British spelling of "defence":

9.28 In the United States of America there are and have been strongly opposed views on either side of the debate concerning gun control. According to the submission of Mr Stevenson many criminologists in the United States had reached the position that they believed that the possession of firearms had a positive effect in discouraging crime and limiting its adverse effect - either through the victim being able to defend himself or through the assailant achieving early control. Mr Stevenson sought to point out that a number of countries had enjoyed advantages from such an approach to gun availability. Thus in the United States burglars were reluctant to break into occupied domestic property. However, in Great Britain there had been no acceptance of this approach, although it was notable that in rural areas where farmers are known to possess shot guns there was a lower level of housebreaking.

9.29 In this country the possession of firearms for self-defence has not, except in special cases, been regarded for many years as a "good reason" for their possession and there never has been a policy of facilitating, let alone encouraging, the acquisition of firearms to discourage crime or limit its effects. Different countries may require to tackle their problems in different ways. In Great Britain the level of firearm ownership is relatively low. I do not see anything in the net benefit argument which is relevant to this country.

When I owned a rifle in Britain of course it was for target shooting. (Well, that and any Russian paratroopers.) If I’d lived in the middle of nowhere and wanted a shotgun for defence against burglars I’d have said I wanted it for shooting vermin, which was the usual reason given. Vermin indeed.

I would submit that most of the native inhabitants of North America perished under the management and direction of the King of England. Yes Americans killed many too but unlike India, where the Brits starved to death anywhere from 50-100 million people, the natives here had weapons and fought back impressively, if not ruthlessly. In India, the natives were disarmed and instead faced a grisly, slow death, while not a single Brit there ever missed a meal.

As for U.S. power, I totally agree -- we're too powerful. Time to exit NATO and tell the Brits and French to get stuffed.

“the Brits starved to death anywhere from 50-100 million people”: what do you have in mind?

As for the Native Americans, the Brits were practitioners of extermination, which is why whole tribes who once flourished here simply vanished. The Siwanoys, the Arrohattoc, the Appomattoc, the original 13 tribes of Long Island -- all gone, or nearly so. But you Brits have Peter Gabriel writing million dollar songs blaming America for everything, so I can see why you're so clueless.

“A review of murder statistics across America shows that in many large cities, up to 90 percent of the victims have criminal records.

“Gun homicides in the U.S. are concentrated in major urban areas. And those cities, typically Democratic strongholds with the most stringent gun control laws in the nation, have gun murder rates that rival those of the most violent countries in the world.

“In 2013, a black was six times more likely than a non-black to commit murder, and 12 times more likely to murder someone of another race than to be murdered by someone of another race.In 2013, of the approximately 660,000 crimes of interracial violence that involved blacks and whites, blacks were the perpetrators 85 percent of the time. This meant a black person was 27 times more likely to attack a white person than vice versa. A Hispanic was eight times more likely to attack a white person than vice versa.In 2014 in New York City, a black was 31 times more likely than a white to be arrested for murder, and a Hispanic was 12.4 times more likely. For the crime of “shooting” — defined as firing a bullet that hits someone — a black was 98.4 times more likely than a white to be arrested, and a Hispanic was 23.6 times more likely.If New York City were all white, the murder rate would drop by 91 percent, the robbery rate by 81 percent, and the shootings rate by 97 percent.In an all-white Chicago, murder would decline 90 percent, rape by 81 percent, and robbery by 90 percent.

I would submit that most of the native inhabitants of North America perished under the management and direction of the King of England. Yes Americans killed many too but unlike India, where the Brits starved to death anywhere from 50-100 million people, the natives here had weapons and fought back impressively, if not ruthlessly. In India, the natives were disarmed and instead faced a grisly, slow death, while not a single Brit there ever missed a meal.

As for U.S. power, I totally agree -- we're too powerful. Time to exit NATO and tell the Brits and French to get stuffed.

I would submit that most of the native inhabitants of North America perished under the management and direction of the King of England.

“Management and direction” is hugely overstating the situation, but certainly much of the disease losses resulting from initial contact with the advanced world came before the US existed. However apart from the 13 colonies most of the continental US was barely touched before 1776 by the future Americans who had done most of the dirty work under the remote “management and direction” of the English state.

Yes Americans killed many too but unlike India, where the Brits starved to death anywhere from 50-100 million people, the natives here had weapons and fought back impressively, if not ruthlessly. In India, the natives were disarmed and instead faced a grisly, slow death, while not a single Brit there ever missed a meal.

Passing swiftly over the events of the Indian Mutiny, the relevant point is just to be clear on the practical reasons why the US became so wealthy and powerful so quickly. The application of the advances of the European scientific and industrial revolutions to the vast wealth of a stolen continent is pretty much sufficient, with the subsequent benefits of continental security, to substantially explain it.

As for U.S. power, I totally agree — we’re too powerful. Time to exit NATO and tell the Brits and French to get stuffed.

Good that we’re in agreement. Don’t let the door catch you on the way out…..

While you’re about it, it’s long past time for us to exit NATO as well, and tell the French and Germans to get stuffed.

However apart from the 13 colonies most of the continental US was barely touched before 1776 by the future Americans who had done most of the dirty work under the remote “management and direction” of the English state.

Fact is, it was much more dangerous to be a Native American before 1776 than after. See my post about whole tribes being wiped out -- exterminated -- primarily (exclusively?) by the Brits. The Appomattoc for example are thought to have been completely wiped out by 1722. That's 54 years before Lexington & Concord.

And any serious student of history knows that the 13 colonies were not a "remote" consideration for Britain at all.

Passing swiftly over the events of the Indian Mutiny

Who said anything about the 1857 massacre (not "mutiny")? That was a minor blip in the entire murderous chapter that constituted British control of India. The more important crimes were the man-made "famines" that the British engineered to depopulate and weaken the country.

The application of the advances of the European scientific and industrial revolutions to the vast wealth of a stolen continent is pretty much sufficient

Yeah you Brits are on the cutting edge. 30,000 of you die each winter because you're too thick to insulate your homes properly or install double-glazed windows. The Limeys call these "excess deaths" lol...I call it comedy. Because if routine weather kills you, you've lost the IQ lottery.

I would submit that most of the native inhabitants of North America perished under the management and direction of the King of England. Yes Americans killed many too but unlike India, where the Brits starved to death anywhere from 50-100 million people, the natives here had weapons and fought back impressively, if not ruthlessly. In India, the natives were disarmed and instead faced a grisly, slow death, while not a single Brit there ever missed a meal.

As for U.S. power, I totally agree -- we're too powerful. Time to exit NATO and tell the Brits and French to get stuffed.

I would submit that most of the native inhabitants of North America perished under the management and direction of the King of England.

You may want to submit but you would be wrong. And this is trivially checked by looking at a map: most territories were not even reachable by the War of Independence.

If he actually means North America in its true geographical sense of the term, the King of Spain was vastly more responsible. Cortez alone in Mexico alone probably was culpable for more Indian deaths then in all of the territory north of the Rio Grande.

As for the Native Americans, the Brits were practitioners of extermination, which is why whole tribes who once flourished here simply vanished. The Siwanoys, the Arrohattoc, the Appomattoc, the original 13 tribes of Long Island — all gone, or nearly so. But you Brits have Peter Gabriel writing million dollar songs blaming America for everything, so I can see why you’re so clueless.

And yes, I know about the school killings that same year [1996] in Dunblane, Scotland. Not to pick nits, but that was an elementary school (and done with handguns...

The U.K. banned all handguns except .22 caliber after that, and then a year later banned the .22's also if I understand it correctly.

What's most remarkable to me though, as an American, is that self-defense was ALREADY not allowed as a reason for owning a gun, well before that massacre occurred. You could only own guns for target shooting at gun clubs, and a few other reasons like animal control.

Here's the relevant passage in the Dunblane Inquiry report from www.gov.uk. At first I did a Ctrl-F for "self-defense" and got not hits, but then remembered the British spelling of "defence":

9.28 In the United States of America there are and have been strongly opposed views on either side of the debate concerning gun control. According to the submission of Mr Stevenson many criminologists in the United States had reached the position that they believed that the possession of firearms had a positive effect in discouraging crime and limiting its adverse effect - either through the victim being able to defend himself or through the assailant achieving early control. Mr Stevenson sought to point out that a number of countries had enjoyed advantages from such an approach to gun availability. Thus in the United States burglars were reluctant to break into occupied domestic property. However, in Great Britain there had been no acceptance of this approach, although it was notable that in rural areas where farmers are known to possess shot guns there was a lower level of housebreaking.

9.29 In this country the possession of firearms for self-defence has not, except in special cases, been regarded for many years as a "good reason" for their possession and there never has been a policy of facilitating, let alone encouraging, the acquisition of firearms to discourage crime or limit its effects. Different countries may require to tackle their problems in different ways. In Great Britain the level of firearm ownership is relatively low. I do not see anything in the net benefit argument which is relevant to this country.

Well you are talking about a country whose elites were and mostly are quite happy for a lone farmer to be convicted of murder for shooting a scumbag burgling his remote house in the dead of night, merely because he shot at him (in pitch dark) in the seconds after he had turned to run having been confronted by someone willing and able to defend his property against human hyenas, rather than the helpless and disarmed victims they would normally have expected to encounter. The charge was only reduced to manslaughter because he claimed paranoia after extensive previous criminal predation attempts, but the conviction and a prison sentence stood.

I’m out of step with most of my compatriots on this, because I have zero sympathy with the kind of scumbag who will invade a home after dark with criminal intent, and I regard the deaths of such people as a benefit to society, not a loss to be deterred. I recognise that the death penalty or allowing execution out of hand would have their own problems, but I don’t see why we can’t just rejoice when a heat of the moment event relieves us of the costs of imprisonment and of the likely future criminal and generally antisocial lives of the scumbags in question once they are out of their brief prison terms.

Imo it’s a shame he didn’t get the other one as well (see the Wikipedia article linked which mentions him in passing, and see if you don’t agree with me).

Certainly when there is a mass school shooting that is a tragedy. But the notion that gun control will solve all of our problems is, I think, somewhat silly.

Mexico has very strict gun control laws, and an official per-capita homicide rate that is at least three times that of the US. And no, these guns mostly don't come from the US, they come from places like China and Guatemala. And there are lots of other countries around the world with strict gun control laws and sky-high murder rates... The United States is very far from being unique as far as gun-related homicides.

The bottom line: perhaps gun control laws would tend to reduce homicide. Maybe Mexico would be even worse without their gun control laws. But the bottom line is: no, it's not history. It's whether the society is stable and people feel like they have a place in it. Today Japan has virtually rock-bottom homicide rates. If every Japanese was issued an AK47, I expect that the homicide rate would hardly budge (although suicides might spike). However, before WWII, when an exploding population had crushed the populace into misery, Japan was unstable and dangerous and at risk of falling apart into chaos.

In America, the homicide rate for heavily armed middle class people with stable jobs is about at the level of western europe. It's poverty - and not poverty so much, as hopelessness and feeling adrift and young men not seeing a realistic path where they can earn an honest living and support a family in some measure of dignity. And that's true everywhere and with every people.

Certainly when there is a mass school shooting that is a tragedy. But the notion that gun control will solve all of our problems is, I think, somewhat silly.

Let individual school districts decide what precautions they want to implement to prevent school shootings, and let’s see what works best. Some will have teachers with 6-shooters on their hip, others will have TSA type security at the entrances and ADT alarms with hair triggers. Others may declare gun-free zones within several hundred feet of schools, just like for sexual predators.

Make verbal threats to shoot up a school a federal offense similar to threatening the life of a President, so that anyone identified as a threat is banned from possession of weapons and required to report weekly to a probation officer or police.

“Mao Tse-tung’s revolution, for all its upheavals and horrors, had very little effect on China’s national psyche, perhaps none at all.” This is because the Chinese have an inferior “pysche.” They are just automatons who plod through life, unable to fully understand living. Their inferior alphabet is an example of this lack of a soul.

Looks like shooter Cruz was a member of the media’s “white Hispanic” category. But despite the Hispanic surname he reportedly has a Jewish mother who gave him up for adoption. He’s not a white nationalist which has deflated the hopes of the ADL, Democrats and SJW, inc.

Cruz appeared to be very mentally ill and should have been confined to an institution and not attending school and freely walking among us.

School shootings are “distinctly American” not because of our second amendment and lack of “common sense” gun control laws but thanks to the unraveling of the social fabric since 1965 which is largely a result of (((Frankfurt School))) assaults on American culture and the founding white racial stocks. The 50-55% divorce rate (thanks to (((feminism))) and resultant dysfunctional and broken homes isn’t helping matters nor is the dehumanizing and violent trash emanating from Hollywood.

Schools shootings wasn’t “who we were” pre-1965 when gun laws were far more liberal, but the nation was more racially and culturally homogeneous, socially conservative and church going. You could order rifles through the mail and fully automatic firearms weren’t outlawed until around 1968.

People need to remember those facts before they go all Piers Morgan on the second amendment.

I wonder if Mr. Derbyshire is saying the same thing as another Englishman said, almost a hundred years ago. Of course, that guy was hardly a fan of America.

“The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.”

― D.H. Lawrence

If only.

Mexico has very strict gun control laws, and an official per-capita homicide rate that is at least three times that of the US. And no, these guns mostly don’t come from the US, they come from places like China and Guatemala. And there are lots of other countries around the world with strict gun control laws and sky-high murder rates… The United States is very far from being unique as far as gun-related homicides.

So what if they do come from the US?

1, I support gun sales to places like Mexico where the gov’t is a joke and commoners need guns to form autodefensas to fight off criminal scum.

2, leftists blame White Americans for the demand for Mexican drugs, so I blame Brown Mexicans for the demand for American guns.

In America, the homicide rate for heavily armed middle class people with stable jobs is about at the level of western europe.

AFAIK the White American rate in general is pretty close to the Western European rate.

I would submit that most of the native inhabitants of North America perished under the management and direction of the King of England.

"Management and direction" is hugely overstating the situation, but certainly much of the disease losses resulting from initial contact with the advanced world came before the US existed. However apart from the 13 colonies most of the continental US was barely touched before 1776 by the future Americans who had done most of the dirty work under the remote "management and direction" of the English state.

Yes Americans killed many too but unlike India, where the Brits starved to death anywhere from 50-100 million people, the natives here had weapons and fought back impressively, if not ruthlessly. In India, the natives were disarmed and instead faced a grisly, slow death, while not a single Brit there ever missed a meal.

Passing swiftly over the events of the Indian Mutiny, the relevant point is just to be clear on the practical reasons why the US became so wealthy and powerful so quickly. The application of the advances of the European scientific and industrial revolutions to the vast wealth of a stolen continent is pretty much sufficient, with the subsequent benefits of continental security, to substantially explain it.

As for U.S. power, I totally agree — we’re too powerful. Time to exit NATO and tell the Brits and French to get stuffed.

Good that we're in agreement. Don't let the door catch you on the way out.....

While you're about it, it's long past time for us to exit NATO as well, and tell the French and Germans to get stuffed.

However apart from the 13 colonies most of the continental US was barely touched before 1776 by the future Americans who had done most of the dirty work under the remote “management and direction” of the English state.

Fact is, it was much more dangerous to be a Native American before 1776 than after. See my post about whole tribes being wiped out — exterminated — primarily (exclusively?) by the Brits. The Appomattoc for example are thought to have been completely wiped out by 1722. That’s 54 years before Lexington & Concord.

And any serious student of history knows that the 13 colonies were not a “remote” consideration for Britain at all.

Passing swiftly over the events of the Indian Mutiny

Who said anything about the 1857 massacre (not “mutiny”)? That was a minor blip in the entire murderous chapter that constituted British control of India. The more important crimes were the man-made “famines” that the British engineered to depopulate and weaken the country.

The application of the advances of the European scientific and industrial revolutions to the vast wealth of a stolen continent is pretty much sufficient

Yeah you Brits are on the cutting edge. 30,000 of you die each winter because you’re too thick to insulate your homes properly or install double-glazed windows. The Limeys call these “excess deaths” lol…I call it comedy. Because if routine weather kills you, you’ve lost the IQ lottery.

What proportion of what is now the USA was under British rule before independence?

What were they fighting for independence for, if not to take over Indian lands west of the Appalachians?

Who was responsible for the Trail of Tears?

I've only spent 7 weeks in the USA - but that's 7 weeks more than the average US citizen has spent outside the USA - and you people came cross as both desperately stupid and desperately ignorant. I see that you're supporting the very accurate stereotype.

And any serious student of history knows that the 13 colonies were not a “remote” consideration for Britain at all.

Sufficiently remote that the political opposition (at the time) here didn't even want to fight over American secession. Though if some real opposition hadn't showed up to fight your cause (the Spanish and French) we'd probably have gotten around to devoting the resources needed to slap you back into line in due course anyway.

As far as "management" is concerned it certainly was "remote" because it could hardly be anything else given the state of transoceanic communications at the time. Mostly the future Americans were left to get on with their own slaughter and exploitation, except when they needed help from Daddy Britain to deal with some of the natives they'd provoked too much.

It won’t, trust me. The sooner we’re done with you the better.

LOL! If only it were true.

I'll believe it when I see it happening. I've been hearing emotional US nationalist types like yourself declaring that they've "had enough!" of "ungrateful Euros" etc for several decades now, but it appears your lords and masters don't agree with you.

“A review of murder statistics across America shows that in many large cities, up to 90 percent of the victims have criminal records.

“Gun homicides in the U.S. are concentrated in major urban areas. And those cities, typically Democratic strongholds with the most stringent gun control laws in the nation, have gun murder rates that rival those of the most violent countries in the world.

“In 2013, a black was six times more likely than a non-black to commit murder, and 12 times more likely to murder someone of another race than to be murdered by someone of another race.
In 2013, of the approximately 660,000 crimes of interracial violence that involved blacks and whites, blacks were the perpetrators 85 percent of the time. This meant a black person was 27 times more likely to attack a white person than vice versa. A Hispanic was eight times more likely to attack a white person than vice versa.
In 2014 in New York City, a black was 31 times more likely than a white to be arrested for murder, and a Hispanic was 12.4 times more likely. For the crime of “shooting” — defined as firing a bullet that hits someone — a black was 98.4 times more likely than a white to be arrested, and a Hispanic was 23.6 times more likely.
If New York City were all white, the murder rate would drop by 91 percent, the robbery rate by 81 percent, and the shootings rate by 97 percent.
In an all-white Chicago, murder would decline 90 percent, rape by 81 percent, and robbery by 90 percent.

In 2011, in incidents of murder for which the relationships of murder victims and offenders were known, 54.3 percent were killed by someone they knew (acquaintance, neighbor, friend, boyfriend, etc.); 24.8 percent of victims were slain by family members. The relationship of murder victims and offenders was unknown in 44.1 percent of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter incidents in 2011. (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 10.)

There are actually dozens of legislative approaches that might reduce the risk of school massacres.

For example, if someone had called the FBI and informed them that Cruz was possibly planning to assassinate the POTUS, then you can be fairly sure that the FBI would have jumped into action instead of lackadaisically ignoring the complaint and not even bringing it to the attention of the Miami FBI office.

Now perhaps there is a good reason for this, for example that the FBI receives so many notifications of possible school killers, that it cannot possibly follow up on any of them when it has important stuff to do like investigating Hillary Clinton's emails.

However with changes in the law designating potential school shooters as the same status as potential presidential assassins, resources could be allocated to identifying possible school shooters and ensuring that they don't have access to weapons of mass destruction.

Or, for example, if all of the nation's schoolteachers were to act en masse to use one of their interminable planning days usefully to march on their respective state capitols to demand action to improve security in their workplaces, and follow up with nationwide strike actions, then you can bet that the NRA and the legislators who love them would be toast.

You see, things can change. At one time big band music was the main form of popular music and every juke box was playing Glenn Miller, but things changed. Now I still listen to big band music, but most Americans don't.

Security used to be casual on US airlines until 9/11 and the same politicians who support the NRA wanted "less government" but now we have the TSA, because politicians fly a lot.

I don't think it is necessarily that the majority of Americans support the status quo, but just that they are a silent majority and too politically inert to bother to do anything. But that could change when the right catalyst or the right leader comes along.

“…the FBI receives so many notifications of possible school killers, that it cannot possibly follow up on any of them,”

Ok, point taken. I would wonder,however, given the rash of school shootings going back at least to Columbine, whether this excuse really holds water anymore.

And iirc there were similar cases in Finland.Obviously such cases are more frequent in the US because of the easier availability of guns (which is unlikely to ever change). I do wonder though why such mass shootings seem to have become so much more frequent from the 1980s onwards. There must be some cultural explanation for this.

“I do wonder though why such mass shootings seem to have become so much more frequent from the 1980s onwards. There must be some cultural explanation for this.”

A culture of Big Pharma. In almost every one of these shootings the killers were on or previously on some type of prescribed psychotropic “medicine”.

The media cannot talk about it though. Too much lost ad revenue to go looking for the truth.

@German_reader
“I do wonder though why such mass shootings seem to have become so much more frequent from the 1980s onwards. There must be some cultural explanation for this.”

A culture of Big Pharma. In almost every one of these shootings the killers were on or previously on some type of prescribed psychotropic “medicine”.

The media cannot talk about it though. Too much lost ad revenue to go looking for the truth.

Never mind Big Pharma. Big Media's own front-page-above-the-fold-giant-font-headline treatment of these (and its broadcast and cyber equivalents), essentially glorifies the perpetrators and encourages the prospective ones.

"I do wonder though why such mass shootings seem to have become so much more frequent from the 1980s onwards. There must be some cultural explanation for this."

A culture of Big Pharma. In almost every one of these shootings the killers were on or previously on some type of prescribed psychotropic "medicine".

The media cannot talk about it though. Too much lost ad revenue to go looking for the truth.

“I do wonder though why such mass shootings seem to have become so much more frequent from the 1980s onwards. There must be some cultural explanation for this.”

A culture of Big Pharma. In almost every one of these shootings the killers were on or previously on some type of prescribed psychotropic “medicine”.

The media cannot talk about it though. Too much lost ad revenue to go looking for the truth.

Never mind Big Pharma. Big Media’s own front-page-above-the-fold-giant-font-headline treatment of these (and its broadcast and cyber equivalents), essentially glorifies the perpetrators and encourages the prospective ones.

Kid was adopted, may be a Russian orphan with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and/or Attachment deficiency issues. Acted out for years, including assaulting his adoptive mother.

Sad case, but at this point a person like that is like a rabid animal; you've got to save others who still CAN be saved. One school shooting in West Virginia was stopped cold because the teacher had a gun in his truck.

Kid was adopted, may be a Russian orphan with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and/or Attachment deficiency issues.

He’s a few years too young to be representative of the Romanian version.

Jennifer Roback Morse and her husband adopted a tw0-year-old boy from Romania, then immediately learned she was pregnant. (They’d been struggling with infertility for years.) To her, an academic economist, this was the perfect controlled experiment: a feral boy and a normal girl in one household. She’s spoken and written about how the most basic things we take for granted with our own children had to be dealt more elaborately with him.

The Morses are quite smart and on top of things quickly, and this kid is fine and prospering now. But a more average adoptive couple, of foreign background themselves (are his Cruzes Cuban?), could let a lot of warning signs slip through the cracks.

General Patton arose and strode swiftly to the microphone. The men snapped to their feet and stood silently. Patton surveyed the sea of brown with a grim look. "Be seated", he said. The words were not a request, but a command. The General's voice rose high and clear.

"Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight. When you, here, everyone of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American."

The General paused and looked over the crowd. "You are not all going to die," he said slowly. "Only two percent of you right here today would die in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men. Yes, every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he's not, he's a liar. Some men are cowards but they fight the same as the brave men or they get the hell slammed out of them watching men fight who are just as scared as they are. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared. Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire. For some, it takes an hour. For some, it takes days. But a real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood. Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base. Americans pride themselves on being He Men and they ARE He Men. Remember that the enemy is just as frightened as you are, and probably more so. They are not supermen."

"All through your Army careers, you men have bitched about what you call "chicken shit drilling". That, like everything else in this Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is alertness. Alertness must be bred into every soldier. I don't give a fuck for a man who's not always on his toes. You men are veterans or you wouldn't be here. You are ready for what's to come. A man must be alert at all times if he expects to stay alive. If you're not alert, sometime, a German son-of-an-asshole-bitch is going to sneak up behind you and beat you to death with a sockful of shit!" The men roared in agreement.

Patton's grim expression did not change. "There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily", he roared into the microphone, "All because one man went to sleep on the job". He paused and the men grew silent. "But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did". The General clutched the microphone tightly, his jaw out-thrust, and he continued, "An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don't know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking!"

The men slapped their legs and rolled in glee. This was Patton as the men had imagined him to be, and in rare form, too. He hadn't let them down. He was all that he was cracked up to be, and more. He had IT!

"We have the finest food, the finest equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world", Patton bellowed. He lowered his head and shook it pensively. Suddenly he snapped erect, faced the men belligerently and thundered, "Why, by God, I actually pity those poor sons-of-bitches we're going up against. By God, I do". The men clapped and howled delightedly. There would be many a barracks tale about the "Old Man's" choice phrases. They would become part and parcel of Third Army's history and they would become the bible of their slang.

"My men don't surrender", Patton continued, "I don't want to hear of any soldier under my command being captured unless he has been hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight back. That's not just bull shit either. The kind of man that I want in my command is just like the lieutenant in Libya, who, with a Luger against his chest, jerked off his helmet, swept the gun aside with one hand, and busted the hell out of the Kraut with his helmet. Then he jumped on the gun and went out and killed another German before they knew what the hell was coming off. And, all of that time, this man had a bullet through a lung. There was a real man!"

Patton stopped and the crowd waited. He continued more quietly, "All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters, either. Every single man in this Army plays a vital role. Don't ever let up. Don't ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain. What if every truck driver suddenly decided that he didn't like the whine of those shells overhead, turned yellow, and jumped headlong into a ditch? The cowardly bastard could say, "Hell, they won't miss me, just one man in thousands". But, what if every man thought that way? Where in the hell would we be now? What would our country, our loved ones, our homes, even the world, be like? No, Goddamnit, Americans don't think like that. Every man does his job. Every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important in the vast scheme of this war. The ordnance men are needed to supply the guns and machinery of war to keep us rolling. The Quartermaster is needed to bring up food and clothes because where we are going there isn't a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man on K.P. has a job to do, even the one who heats our water to keep us from getting the 'G.I. Shits'."

Patton paused, took a deep breath, and continued, "Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don't want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. One of the bravest men that I ever saw was a fellow on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of a furious fire fight in Tunisia. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at a time like that. He answered, "Fixing the wire, Sir". I asked, "Isn't that a little unhealthy right about now?" He answered, "Yes Sir, but the Goddamned wire has to be fixed". I asked, "Don't those planes strafing the road bother you?" And he answered, "No, Sir, but you sure as hell do!" Now, there was a real man. A real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time, no matter how great the odds. And you should have seen those trucks on the road to Tunisia. Those drivers were magnificent. All day and all night they rolled over those son-of-a-bitching roads, never stopping, never faltering from their course, with shells bursting all around them all of the time. We got through on good old American guts. Many of those men drove for over forty consecutive hours. These men weren't combat men, but they were soldiers with a job to do. They did it, and in one hell of a way they did it. They were part of a team. Without team effort, without them, the fight would have been lost. All of the links in the chain pulled together and the chain became unbreakable."

http://www.pattonhq.com/speech.html

The men of WWII were my barber, grocer, teachers, milkmen and about every other innocuous adult male I met growing up in the sixties as a kid. Of course I didn’t realize I was speaking to perhaps the last large body of “men” in western civilization.

German media is consistantly screaming at the Americans that they must change their gun laws to comply with the restrictive German standards.

The know-it-all German "Besserwisser" obviously think that they rule the world, and that their concepts of morality and civility must be adopted world-wide in order for mankind to survive within a leftist "Gutmensch" socialistic tyranny. "Am deutschen Wesen soll die Welt genesen".

They, the deutsche "Besserwisser" are also demanding that the US eliminate it's electoral college system as it was the cause for their Liebling HC losing to the incarnation of evil : DT

The deutsche "Besserwisser" apparently think that US election system was concieved two-hundred years ago for the purpose of installing DT, whom they hate with a vengence, into the WH.

However apart from the 13 colonies most of the continental US was barely touched before 1776 by the future Americans who had done most of the dirty work under the remote “management and direction” of the English state.

Fact is, it was much more dangerous to be a Native American before 1776 than after. See my post about whole tribes being wiped out -- exterminated -- primarily (exclusively?) by the Brits. The Appomattoc for example are thought to have been completely wiped out by 1722. That's 54 years before Lexington & Concord.

And any serious student of history knows that the 13 colonies were not a "remote" consideration for Britain at all.

Passing swiftly over the events of the Indian Mutiny

Who said anything about the 1857 massacre (not "mutiny")? That was a minor blip in the entire murderous chapter that constituted British control of India. The more important crimes were the man-made "famines" that the British engineered to depopulate and weaken the country.

The application of the advances of the European scientific and industrial revolutions to the vast wealth of a stolen continent is pretty much sufficient

Yeah you Brits are on the cutting edge. 30,000 of you die each winter because you're too thick to insulate your homes properly or install double-glazed windows. The Limeys call these "excess deaths" lol...I call it comedy. Because if routine weather kills you, you've lost the IQ lottery.

Don’t let the door catch you on the way out….

It won't, trust me. The sooner we're done with you the better.

What proportion of what is now the USA was under British rule before independence?

What were they fighting for independence for, if not to take over Indian lands west of the Appalachians?

Who was responsible for the Trail of Tears?

I’ve only spent 7 weeks in the USA – but that’s 7 weeks more than the average US citizen has spent outside the USA – and you people came cross as both desperately stupid and desperately ignorant. I see that you’re supporting the very accurate stereotype.

What proportion of what is now the USA was under British rule before independence?

You're confusing geography with population density. The East Coast was heavily populated with native tribes. Kansas, less so. But you're British, so you probably think Disney world is a 40-minute drive from Times Square.

What were they fighting for independence for, if not to take over Indian lands west of the Appalachians?

To get away from stupid people who wore red coats in battle and thought they were smart.

Who was responsible for the Trail of Tears?

That would be Winston Churchill, who left a trail of tears, death and destruction wherever he went. He killed more people in one winter in India (1943-44) than all of the natives who perished in North America.

I’ve only spent 7 weeks in the USA – but that’s 7 weeks more than the average US citizen has spent outside the USA – and you people came cross as both desperately stupid and desperately ignorant. I see that you’re supporting the very accurate stereotype.

See my comment above about stupid Brits who are too stupid to insulate their homes properly and die like fruit flies each winter. And what country holds an annual convention/groupie fanfest for the show "Friends?" That would be the UK. Smart, you're not.

And iirc there were similar cases in Finland.Obviously such cases are more frequent in the US because of the easier availability of guns (which is unlikely to ever change). I do wonder though why such mass shootings seem to have become so much more frequent from the 1980s onwards. There must be some cultural explanation for this.

The Derb should have watched Jesse Watters and Jeanine Pirro on Sat. night before writing this piece. (Granted, the judge was a bit vehement, hysterical, histrionic and overwrought, as usual, but she was right, essentially, as usual.) This atrocity could have been easily prevented. Given his behavior, ceaselessly for years and years, most of which was insane and much of which was criminal, this lunatic should have been in an insane asylum or the mental ward of a prison rather than free to buy an arsenal of weapons and commit mass murder. And as Watters, or someone else, noted, liberals who claim such shootings are unique to the U.S. because of the 2nd Amendment and NRA don’t understand what per-capita means -but the Derb surely does.

Most of my other comments-to-be about this article have probably been addressed already in the comments here, from what I could tell by short skim through them. I will just write this to add to this last part:

So there’s a solution to gun violence right there: Elect populist, gun-loving presidents, and gun ownership will decline. If you elect Progressive nanny-state presidents like Barack Obama, there’ll be more guns out there.

Coincidentally, I got my NRA magazine this morning.* The cover of the mag. had urgent warnings about “a coming socialist wave that will drown your guns”. I think that the NRA may be slightly hurting for enrollment and/or donations just now for the same reasons you say “gun ownership will decline”**.

Hey, the NRA is like any big organization in that it’s main purpose is to stay in business. I understand that, but this magazine issue is quite premature for getting pro-gun votes for November. It just seems to be over-the-top. However, I do know how much good the NRA does for 2nd Amendment freedom and has done over the last few decades (after their 1960′s sell-out years). I will always stay a member, if nothing else to keep their numbers, hence clout, up.

The GAO, Eric Pratt’s organization, is a more lean and hard-core organization. If you care about freedom, please check out that one before or in addition to the NRA.

.

* No, it’s not enough to dox me – there are about 5,000,000 of us!
.

** BTW, I didn’t click on your links, Mr. Derbyshire, but are you sure it isn’t just that sales are down? There have been big increases for the last bunch of years, so I don’t know if that means necessarily ownership is down – maybe just not increasing as fast.

“A review of murder statistics across America shows that in many large cities, up to 90 percent of the victims have criminal records.

“Gun homicides in the U.S. are concentrated in major urban areas. And those cities, typically Democratic strongholds with the most stringent gun control laws in the nation, have gun murder rates that rival those of the most violent countries in the world.

“In 2013, a black was six times more likely than a non-black to commit murder, and 12 times more likely to murder someone of another race than to be murdered by someone of another race.In 2013, of the approximately 660,000 crimes of interracial violence that involved blacks and whites, blacks were the perpetrators 85 percent of the time. This meant a black person was 27 times more likely to attack a white person than vice versa. A Hispanic was eight times more likely to attack a white person than vice versa.In 2014 in New York City, a black was 31 times more likely than a white to be arrested for murder, and a Hispanic was 12.4 times more likely. For the crime of “shooting” — defined as firing a bullet that hits someone — a black was 98.4 times more likely than a white to be arrested, and a Hispanic was 23.6 times more likely.If New York City were all white, the murder rate would drop by 91 percent, the robbery rate by 81 percent, and the shootings rate by 97 percent.In an all-white Chicago, murder would decline 90 percent, rape by 81 percent, and robbery by 90 percent.

In 2011, in incidents of murder for which the relationships of murder victims and offenders were known, 54.3 percent were killed by someone they knew (acquaintance, neighbor, friend, boyfriend, etc.); 24.8 percent of victims were slain by family members. The relationship of murder victims and offenders was unknown in 44.1 percent of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter incidents in 2011. (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 10.)

It would be rather surprising if a lot of murder victims did not "know each other", as it would suggest that the vast majority of killings were random bystander/robbery incidents as opposed to drug etc business disputes or crimes of passion. "Someone they knew" in the FBI stats presumably includes drug dealing rivals.

It's also most likely that the instance of murders by "someone they knew" would be much, much higher in the category of cases "for which the relationships of murder victims and offenders were known", than in the remaining 44% of cases where the relationship is unknown (presumably because the murder is unsolved). So the fact that it was only 54.3% in the former strongly suggests it's less than 50% overall.

The fact that murder rates in the US in areas dominated by more anglo race and culture are not all that much different from the European norm reassure me that it is not gun ownership that is the source of most of the problem, but rather US urban black (especially) and immigrant communities that should be recognised as origin of the problem of gun murders (regardless of the statistically trivial contribution made by the odd school shooter nutter), and should be expected to sort their cultural problems out.

From my perspective, the US is too powerful (mostly for reasons of historical circumstance involving Americans having killed and/or expropriated the primitive inhabitants of an entire largely unexploited continent and used the resulting position of immense wealth and continental security to watch from a safe distance as the old powers destroyed themselves, with some US dabbling to encourage the right results, for the US's purposes, from afar) and its excessive power is a source of many problems in the world. So I tend to focus on what's wrong with the US and its behaviour.

But issues like this remind me that there clearly are unique strengths to American society (as every nation has its unique strengths and weaknesses). Primarily, in the case of American culture, those are embodied in the First and Second Amendments to the US Constitution, and the way these have been interpreted over time.

The private right to own weapons for the purpose of household and family protection (handguns in particular) is non-existent in many countries, often as a result of sentimental manipulation of opinion in response to shock crimes such as Dunblane. The right to speak freely is increasingly restricted in most of the rest of the world, from "holocaust denial" to antiracist and other political correctness enforcing speechcrime laws.

Credit where it is due, the US still lags behind in those encroaching tyrannies to which much of the rest of the world is falling. Not for lack of effort on the part of the gun grabbers and the wannabe censors, either.

That's true in the case of some areas (the notion of "unoccupied" is a bit tricky in relation to nomadic peoples, which some Indian tribes were), although I daresay an advocate for the American Indians would point out that you'd be pretty unhappy about a bunch of say muslim colonists moving into unoccupied areas of the US on the basis that "they're unoccupied".

It's not really significant as far as the points at issue are concerned, though.

I would submit that most of the native inhabitants of North America perished under the management and direction of the King of England.

You may want to submit but you would be wrong. And this is trivially checked by looking at a map: most territories were not even reachable by the War of Independence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolutionary_War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Wars

If he actually means North America in its true geographical sense of the term, the King of Spain was vastly more responsible. Cortez alone in Mexico alone probably was culpable for more Indian deaths then in all of the territory north of the Rio Grande.

As for the Native Americans, the Brits were practitioners of extermination, which is why whole tribes who once flourished here simply vanished. The Siwanoys, the Arrohattoc, the Appomattoc, the original 13 tribes of Long Island -- all gone, or nearly so. But you Brits have Peter Gabriel writing million dollar songs blaming America for everything, so I can see why you're so clueless.

It is not often that I find John Derbyshire’s wit and readable quirkiness making way for intellectual sloppiness. It’s the way Amercans are and they are just not going to change! Like they didn’t change on Prohibition, or anal sex in its
various legal aspects or…. but let’s make the really telling observation that, as JD has just pointed out, the law has changed in state after state over a generation or two in favour of irresponsible dangerous gun availability. It’s certainly not impossible for public opinion to change again. Supposing a core of activists started a few states on the process of chipping away intelligently at a dozen peripheral improvements,which could be presumed to have caused most of the fall in gun deaths, that young people who had never owned guns could take up the cause and push through changes over 15 years or so (I don’t pretend at this moment to be able to predict confidently which changes eill prove crucial but it might turn out to be taxes or maybe the screwing up of inconvenience or…).

In 2011, in incidents of murder for which the relationships of murder victims and offenders were known, 54.3 percent were killed by someone they knew (acquaintance, neighbor, friend, boyfriend, etc.); 24.8 percent of victims were slain by family members. The relationship of murder victims and offenders was unknown in 44.1 percent of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter incidents in 2011. (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 10.)

It would be rather surprising if a lot of murder victims did not “know each other”, as it would suggest that the vast majority of killings were random bystander/robbery incidents as opposed to drug etc business disputes or crimes of passion. “Someone they knew” in the FBI stats presumably includes drug dealing rivals.

It’s also most likely that the instance of murders by “someone they knew” would be much, much higher in the category of cases “for which the relationships of murder victims and offenders were known”, than in the remaining 44% of cases where the relationship is unknown (presumably because the murder is unsolved). So the fact that it was only 54.3% in the former strongly suggests it’s less than 50% overall.

The fact that murder rates in the US in areas dominated by more anglo race and culture are not all that much different from the European norm reassure me that it is not gun ownership that is the source of most of the problem, but rather US urban black (especially) and immigrant communities that should be recognised as origin of the problem of gun murders (regardless of the statistically trivial contribution made by the odd school shooter nutter), and should be expected to sort their cultural problems out.

That’s true in the case of some areas (the notion of “unoccupied” is a bit tricky in relation to nomadic peoples, which some Indian tribes were), although I daresay an advocate for the American Indians would point out that you’d be pretty unhappy about a bunch of say muslim colonists moving into unoccupied areas of the US on the basis that “they’re unoccupied”.

It’s not really significant as far as the points at issue are concerned, though.

However apart from the 13 colonies most of the continental US was barely touched before 1776 by the future Americans who had done most of the dirty work under the remote “management and direction” of the English state.

Fact is, it was much more dangerous to be a Native American before 1776 than after. See my post about whole tribes being wiped out -- exterminated -- primarily (exclusively?) by the Brits. The Appomattoc for example are thought to have been completely wiped out by 1722. That's 54 years before Lexington & Concord.

And any serious student of history knows that the 13 colonies were not a "remote" consideration for Britain at all.

Passing swiftly over the events of the Indian Mutiny

Who said anything about the 1857 massacre (not "mutiny")? That was a minor blip in the entire murderous chapter that constituted British control of India. The more important crimes were the man-made "famines" that the British engineered to depopulate and weaken the country.

The application of the advances of the European scientific and industrial revolutions to the vast wealth of a stolen continent is pretty much sufficient

Yeah you Brits are on the cutting edge. 30,000 of you die each winter because you're too thick to insulate your homes properly or install double-glazed windows. The Limeys call these "excess deaths" lol...I call it comedy. Because if routine weather kills you, you've lost the IQ lottery.

Don’t let the door catch you on the way out….

It won't, trust me. The sooner we're done with you the better.

And any serious student of history knows that the 13 colonies were not a “remote” consideration for Britain at all.

Sufficiently remote that the political opposition (at the time) here didn’t even want to fight over American secession. Though if some real opposition hadn’t showed up to fight your cause (the Spanish and French) we’d probably have gotten around to devoting the resources needed to slap you back into line in due course anyway.

As far as “management” is concerned it certainly was “remote” because it could hardly be anything else given the state of transoceanic communications at the time. Mostly the future Americans were left to get on with their own slaughter and exploitation, except when they needed help from Daddy Britain to deal with some of the natives they’d provoked too much.

It won’t, trust me. The sooner we’re done with you the better.

LOL! If only it were true.

I’ll believe it when I see it happening. I’ve been hearing emotional US nationalist types like yourself declaring that they’ve “had enough!” of “ungrateful Euros” etc for several decades now, but it appears your lords and masters don’t agree with you.

I don't know his biological background. He's quoted as saying that his mother was a Jew and that he was glad he'd never met her. But he's obviously barking mad so there doesn't seem to me to be much reason to believe him.

Usually there's no point fulminating about such horrors but this time it does seem reasonable to point a finger at the FBI. Just too busy attempting a coup d'état, eh? When did they become such a menace to the American people? Slick Willie's presidency? Long before?

Kid was adopted, may be a Russian orphan with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and/or Attachment deficiency issues. Acted out for years, including assaulting his adoptive mother.

Sad case, but at this point a person like that is like a rabid animal; you've got to save others who still CAN be saved. One school shooting in West Virginia was stopped cold because the teacher had a gun in his truck.

I don’t have a good explanation for the periodic mass shootings that plague our country but in terms of our overall gun violence, when a group that makes up about 1/8th of the population kills as many people annually as the other 87% combined, I’m not sure “we” is the right term.

What proportion of what is now the USA was under British rule before independence?

What were they fighting for independence for, if not to take over Indian lands west of the Appalachians?

Who was responsible for the Trail of Tears?

I've only spent 7 weeks in the USA - but that's 7 weeks more than the average US citizen has spent outside the USA - and you people came cross as both desperately stupid and desperately ignorant. I see that you're supporting the very accurate stereotype.

And our life expectancy is longer than yours.

What proportion of what is now the USA was under British rule before independence?

You’re confusing geography with population density. The East Coast was heavily populated with native tribes. Kansas, less so. But you’re British, so you probably think Disney world is a 40-minute drive from Times Square.

What were they fighting for independence for, if not to take over Indian lands west of the Appalachians?

To get away from stupid people who wore red coats in battle and thought they were smart.

Who was responsible for the Trail of Tears?

That would be Winston Churchill, who left a trail of tears, death and destruction wherever he went. He killed more people in one winter in India (1943-44) than all of the natives who perished in North America.

I’ve only spent 7 weeks in the USA – but that’s 7 weeks more than the average US citizen has spent outside the USA – and you people came cross as both desperately stupid and desperately ignorant. I see that you’re supporting the very accurate stereotype.

See my comment above about stupid Brits who are too stupid to insulate their homes properly and die like fruit flies each winter. And what country holds an annual convention/groupie fanfest for the show “Friends?” That would be the UK. Smart, you’re not.

The company has been synonymous with rock and roll since the 1950s with its models — the most popular include the Les Paul, the SG, the Firebird and several semi-acoustic lines — being used by virtually every iconic guitar hero, from Chuck Berry and B.B. King to Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton and Duane Allman to Slash and Johnny Marr to Gary Clarke Jr. Yet as rock music has fallen from mainstream popularity so have the guitar sales that form the bulk of Gibson’s business.

Bad news especially for myself a Michigander. I have a well-heeled German guitar buddy who had three new Gibsons sent to him from the US to the tune of 20 grand, he could have ordered them through a german dealer, said he felt better having them come directly from the US. Just about every european Jazz guitar player plays a Gibson, from Spain to Russia.I have played with oodles of Jazz Guitar players and they alway played a Gibson.Aside from this , my step-dad was partners with Leo Fender 1946, after his discharge from the navy, in Long Beach Ca. They put their money together along with one other guy who's name escapes me, and started Fender, anyway my dad sold out, fifties, to leo for 150 grand, and Leo, according to my dad, fucked him out of four million bucks through the impending, already negotiated, sale of Fender, of which he did not inform my dad.Whenever we would be somewhere with a band playing Fender instruments, he, my dad, would go over the whole sad story of being betrayed by a so-called friend.

What we need is permitless CCW in all 50 states. That would put a lot more guns on the streets of Chicago to deal with the street scum.

I’m for local control on these matters. Places like Detroit, Chicago, and Baltimore might well do best with a targeted stop-frisk-confiscate regime that takes illegal guns out of the hands of criminals faster than they can replace them.

That’s hard to do with no legal barriers to gun ownership (though I suppose these days some kind of biometric establishment of ID is close at hand, if not here already).

Most murder victims get killed by their friends, relatives, co-workers and neighbors, so be careful what you ask for.

Most of them are young black males, too. “Co-workers” and “neighbors” may be used somewhat loosely here.

In 2011, in incidents of murder for which the relationships of murder victims and offenders were known, 54.3 percent were killed by someone they knew (acquaintance, neighbor, friend, boyfriend, etc.); 24.8 percent of victims were slain by family members. The relationship of murder victims and offenders was unknown in 44.1 percent of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter incidents in 2011. (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 10.)

"Places like Detroit, Chicago, and Baltimore might well do best with a targeted stop-frisk-confiscate regime that takes illegal guns out of the hands of criminals faster than they can replace them."

Good in theory but it sounds like the thin end of the wedge to me. It places too much trust in governments who have already proven that they cannot be trusted. They (those who buy governments) ultimately want your rights, liberties and wealth and their greed and lust for power is boundless. Much too much to lose in my opinion.

I don't have a good explanation for the periodic mass shootings that plague our country but in terms of our overall gun violence, when a group that makes up about 1/8th of the population kills as many people annually as the other 87% combined, I'm not sure "we" is the right term.

There’s very little history of this sort of thing prior to 1966, so, no, that’s not ‘who we are’.

Careful there, AD. There’s very little history of mass immigration of “diversity” prior to 1965, so mass diversity isn’t “who we are,” either. Except, this is precisely who we are, according to the American political establishment and our media overlords. They chant just that, incessantly.

Almost as if we’re ruled by a hostile regime.

See the kinds of things you can unleash by hearkening back to the sixties?

It is not often that I find John Derbyshire’s wit and readable quirkiness making way for intellectual sloppiness. It’s the way Amercans are and they are just not going to change! Like they didn’t change on Prohibition, or anal sex in its
various legal aspects or…. but let’s make the really telling observation that, as JD has just pointed out, the law has changed in state after state over a generation or two in favour of irresponsible dangerous gun availability. It’s certainly not impossible for public opinion to change again. Supposing a core of activists started a few states on the process of chipping away intelligently at a dozen peripheral improvements,which could be presumed to have caused most of the fall in gun deaths, that young people who had never owned guns could take up the cause and push through changes over 15 years or so (I don’t pretend at this moment to be able to predict confidently which changes eill prove crucial but it might turn out to be taxes or maybe the screwing up of inconvenience or…).

Steve Sailer put me on to the reason that 2nd Amendment advocates keep winning, despite the left’s general dominance, when he made an observation about the side with profit motive to its advantage usually winning. I think he was talking about immigration, where this definitely holds true; America’s borders have been held open for 50+ years because cheap labor is in the oligarchs’ interests.

Rightists happen to be on the profit side of the gun issue. Make money producing guns? Donate time and money to 2A advocacy. Make money selling guns? Donate time and money to 2A advocacy. Make a pastime of buying guns and ammo? Donate time and money to 2A advocacy.

The other side has no industry, no profit motive to back them. Sure, producers of alternatives to guns theoretically have a motive, but 2A advocacy people would crush them if they sided with gun-grabbers; 2A people are their natural customer base.

All the gun-grabbers have is cat ladies and busybodies who want to take peoples’ toys away and trample the Founders’ vision.

All the passion is on the 2A advocates’ side, and it’s year-round, not just flaring up when a shooting hits Big Media.

TL;DR version: what would an anti-gun club even look like? What would they do for fun?

I agree with you a lot, Svigor, even on some of the further-up comments of yours under this post. However, no, it's not the gun/ammo industry that keeps the 2nd Amendment alive. That whole industry is miniscule compared to just one like Big-Ag, with your example of their pushing for immigration.

The 2nd Amendment is still around because gun-owners have fought for 50 years against the forces that have, only partially successfully, tried to gut the principal of the right to keep and bear arms. Yes, some of them, the "Fudds", that just want to be able to keep their shotguns, fight only for their own small cause, and others for other reasons. However, the NRA and probably 10 times as many people as it's membership, vote and influence local politicians pretty well.

Some D's have admitted that Al Gore lost the election due to his distain for this most important right of all. As far as the gun industry, sometime around the same time, Smith and Wesson, the iconic handgun maker (OK, one of them) betrayed gun owners with some statement or company policy. They almost went bankrupt due to that.

The company has been synonymous with rock and roll since the 1950s with its models — the most popular include the Les Paul, the SG, the Firebird and several semi-acoustic lines — being used by virtually every iconic guitar hero, from Chuck Berry and B.B. King to Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton and Duane Allman to Slash and Johnny Marr to Gary Clarke Jr. Yet as rock music has fallen from mainstream popularity so have the guitar sales that form the bulk of Gibson’s business.

Bad news especially for myself a Michigander. I have a well-heeled German guitar buddy who had three new Gibsons sent to him from the US to the tune of 20 grand, he could have ordered them through a german dealer, said he felt better having them come directly from the US.
Just about every european Jazz guitar player plays a Gibson, from Spain to Russia.
I have played with oodles of Jazz Guitar players and they alway played a Gibson.
Aside from this , my step-dad was partners with Leo Fender 1946, after his discharge from the navy, in Long Beach Ca. They put their money together along with one other guy who’s name escapes me, and started Fender, anyway my dad sold out, fifties, to leo for 150 grand, and Leo, according to my dad, fucked him out of four million bucks through the impending, already negotiated, sale of Fender, of which he did not inform my dad.
Whenever we would be somewhere with a band playing Fender instruments, he, my dad, would go over the whole sad story of being betrayed by a so-called friend.

I do know how the left could destroy the domestic firearms industry, though: remove the federal bans/taxes on importation of guns, gun parts, ammo, etc. These barriers have been essential to the thriving domestic firearms industry. If they were removed, very few domestic players could survive.

And once the domestic industry is destroyed, so is much of the bank and base for 2A advocacy. Foreign industry wouldn’t have the same passion for 2A advocacy, and it would be much easier to restrict, what with being of foreign origin and all.

General Patton arose and strode swiftly to the microphone. The men snapped to their feet and stood silently. Patton surveyed the sea of brown with a grim look. "Be seated", he said. The words were not a request, but a command. The General's voice rose high and clear.

"Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight. When you, here, everyone of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American."

The General paused and looked over the crowd. "You are not all going to die," he said slowly. "Only two percent of you right here today would die in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men. Yes, every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he's not, he's a liar. Some men are cowards but they fight the same as the brave men or they get the hell slammed out of them watching men fight who are just as scared as they are. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared. Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire. For some, it takes an hour. For some, it takes days. But a real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood. Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base. Americans pride themselves on being He Men and they ARE He Men. Remember that the enemy is just as frightened as you are, and probably more so. They are not supermen."

"All through your Army careers, you men have bitched about what you call "chicken shit drilling". That, like everything else in this Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is alertness. Alertness must be bred into every soldier. I don't give a fuck for a man who's not always on his toes. You men are veterans or you wouldn't be here. You are ready for what's to come. A man must be alert at all times if he expects to stay alive. If you're not alert, sometime, a German son-of-an-asshole-bitch is going to sneak up behind you and beat you to death with a sockful of shit!" The men roared in agreement.

Patton's grim expression did not change. "There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily", he roared into the microphone, "All because one man went to sleep on the job". He paused and the men grew silent. "But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did". The General clutched the microphone tightly, his jaw out-thrust, and he continued, "An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don't know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking!"

The men slapped their legs and rolled in glee. This was Patton as the men had imagined him to be, and in rare form, too. He hadn't let them down. He was all that he was cracked up to be, and more. He had IT!

"We have the finest food, the finest equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world", Patton bellowed. He lowered his head and shook it pensively. Suddenly he snapped erect, faced the men belligerently and thundered, "Why, by God, I actually pity those poor sons-of-bitches we're going up against. By God, I do". The men clapped and howled delightedly. There would be many a barracks tale about the "Old Man's" choice phrases. They would become part and parcel of Third Army's history and they would become the bible of their slang.

"My men don't surrender", Patton continued, "I don't want to hear of any soldier under my command being captured unless he has been hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight back. That's not just bull shit either. The kind of man that I want in my command is just like the lieutenant in Libya, who, with a Luger against his chest, jerked off his helmet, swept the gun aside with one hand, and busted the hell out of the Kraut with his helmet. Then he jumped on the gun and went out and killed another German before they knew what the hell was coming off. And, all of that time, this man had a bullet through a lung. There was a real man!"

Patton stopped and the crowd waited. He continued more quietly, "All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters, either. Every single man in this Army plays a vital role. Don't ever let up. Don't ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain. What if every truck driver suddenly decided that he didn't like the whine of those shells overhead, turned yellow, and jumped headlong into a ditch? The cowardly bastard could say, "Hell, they won't miss me, just one man in thousands". But, what if every man thought that way? Where in the hell would we be now? What would our country, our loved ones, our homes, even the world, be like? No, Goddamnit, Americans don't think like that. Every man does his job. Every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important in the vast scheme of this war. The ordnance men are needed to supply the guns and machinery of war to keep us rolling. The Quartermaster is needed to bring up food and clothes because where we are going there isn't a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man on K.P. has a job to do, even the one who heats our water to keep us from getting the 'G.I. Shits'."

Patton paused, took a deep breath, and continued, "Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don't want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. One of the bravest men that I ever saw was a fellow on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of a furious fire fight in Tunisia. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at a time like that. He answered, "Fixing the wire, Sir". I asked, "Isn't that a little unhealthy right about now?" He answered, "Yes Sir, but the Goddamned wire has to be fixed". I asked, "Don't those planes strafing the road bother you?" And he answered, "No, Sir, but you sure as hell do!" Now, there was a real man. A real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time, no matter how great the odds. And you should have seen those trucks on the road to Tunisia. Those drivers were magnificent. All day and all night they rolled over those son-of-a-bitching roads, never stopping, never faltering from their course, with shells bursting all around them all of the time. We got through on good old American guts. Many of those men drove for over forty consecutive hours. These men weren't combat men, but they were soldiers with a job to do. They did it, and in one hell of a way they did it. They were part of a team. Without team effort, without them, the fight would have been lost. All of the links in the chain pulled together and the chain became unbreakable."

http://www.pattonhq.com/speech.html

Professor Cut ‘n Paste left out out the concluding paragraphs of this fine speech by one of America’s most famous psychopaths:

“And men, if my previous speech full of self-serving bromides did not convince you of the necessity of abandoning your individualites and individual consciences concerning this war, then remember this: you are my property, to dispose of when and where I please. You are basically farm animals, owned in toto by the U.S. Army, and my membership in the elite gives me the power to use your sorry asses in the service of my ego and ambition, as I see fit.

Never lose sight of the fact, men, that you are here under duress, and refusal to obey (however admirable may be the moral objection or individual pang of conscience motivating the disobedience) will be punished by a stiff term in prison. Further disobedience there will probably result in time the straightjacket, made famous by Jack London in that novel, whatever the hell it was called. I understand they also have developed other very creative methods of coercion, some involving pliers…brave men, prison guards…but I digress. In other words, men: just don’t do it. Be the sort of masculine creature lacking actual manhood that I described earlier in my speech, and you will do just fine.

In conclusion, all of you, brave men and cowards alike, will face battle today; no doubt you will all aquit yourselves in the fashion of the True American: a quarter-educated barbarian convinced he is superior to the rest of the world, totally lacking in original thought and the moral sense (to the extent we have been able to beat those things out of your worthless hides, both in school and here in the Army) and willing and able to be manipulated and led by careerist pricks like myself. But Real Men, all. And so obedient!

Remember, as I said, only 2% of you will die, but a great many more of you will be critically wounded, or suffer disfiguring wounds and quite possibly the loss of your nutsack and dingus (although that is something of a paradox, as if you still had these things you would not be standing here like cattle listening to my bullshit). Remember, we are here to save Europe from the spectre of facism…brave men, fascists…they really do know how to fix the wire and drive like hell…”[here the General had to stop and take his medication]

Seeing only the bad about combat and war. And there is plenty of bad there for sure. Especially for losers or just unlucky. Unskilled, unfit too.

But, there is something else there too.

Now...how that "else" can be fathomed by a person who's never been in a fight?
Just a street fight.
It can't.

I'll use male/female approach again.
Giving birth. Never done that, so, I admit I do not get it.
Obviously, I've read a lot about it, spoken with women about it (including my wife) but, can't say I get it. Neither bad nor good. I mean really....really get it.
Women say there is plenty of both there. I believe them.

So...how come that the same women can't believe when I say the same applies to combat and war?
Because there is.
There are "highs" impossible to get anywhere else. I guess. Worked for me and some guys I know.
Patton wrote well about some elements of it.

I do believe it's "mother thing".
The thing with "mother thing" is, well, as soon as somebody touches that thing a female is quite capable of wanting war it's scary to watch.
"We are going to rape and kill your daughters and slaughter your menfolk" the opposition says. Well...watch then that "feminine" beast..I mean, touch.

I don’t know his biological background. He’s quoted as saying that his mother was a Jew and that he was glad he’d never met her. But he’s obviously barking mad so there doesn’t seem to me to be much reason to believe him.

Usually there’s no point fulminating about such horrors but this time it does seem reasonable to point a finger at the FBI. Just too busy attempting a coup d’état, eh? When did they become such a menace to the American people? Slick Willie’s presidency? Long before?

Professor Cut 'n Paste left out out the concluding paragraphs of this fine speech by one of America's most famous psychopaths:

"And men, if my previous speech full of self-serving bromides did not convince you of the necessity of abandoning your individualites and individual consciences concerning this war, then remember this: you are my property, to dispose of when and where I please. You are basically farm animals, owned in toto by the U.S. Army, and my membership in the elite gives me the power to use your sorry asses in the service of my ego and ambition, as I see fit.

Never lose sight of the fact, men, that you are here under duress, and refusal to obey (however admirable may be the moral objection or individual pang of conscience motivating the disobedience) will be punished by a stiff term in prison. Further disobedience there will probably result in time the straightjacket, made famous by Jack London in that novel, whatever the hell it was called. I understand they also have developed other very creative methods of coercion, some involving pliers...brave men, prison guards...but I digress. In other words, men: just don't do it. Be the sort of masculine creature lacking actual manhood that I described earlier in my speech, and you will do just fine.

In conclusion, all of you, brave men and cowards alike, will face battle today; no doubt you will all aquit yourselves in the fashion of the True American: a quarter-educated barbarian convinced he is superior to the rest of the world, totally lacking in original thought and the moral sense (to the extent we have been able to beat those things out of your worthless hides, both in school and here in the Army) and willing and able to be manipulated and led by careerist pricks like myself. But Real Men, all. And so obedient!

Remember, as I said, only 2% of you will die, but a great many more of you will be critically wounded, or suffer disfiguring wounds and quite possibly the loss of your nutsack and dingus (although that is something of a paradox, as if you still had these things you would not be standing here like cattle listening to my bullshit). Remember, we are here to save Europe from the spectre of facism...brave men, fascists...they really do know how to fix the wire and drive like hell..."[here the General had to stop and take his medication]

Spoken as real woman.

Is that a “mother thing” or something else?

Seeing only the bad about combat and war. And there is plenty of bad there for sure. Especially for losers or just unlucky. Unskilled, unfit too.

But, there is something else there too.

Now…how that “else” can be fathomed by a person who’s never been in a fight?
Just a street fight.
It can’t.

I’ll use male/female approach again.
Giving birth. Never done that, so, I admit I do not get it.
Obviously, I’ve read a lot about it, spoken with women about it (including my wife) but, can’t say I get it. Neither bad nor good. I mean really….really get it.
Women say there is plenty of both there. I believe them.

So…how come that the same women can’t believe when I say the same applies to combat and war?
Because there is.
There are “highs” impossible to get anywhere else. I guess. Worked for me and some guys I know.
Patton wrote well about some elements of it.

I do believe it’s “mother thing”.
The thing with “mother thing” is, well, as soon as somebody touches that thing a female is quite capable of wanting war it’s scary to watch.
“We are going to rape and kill your daughters and slaughter your menfolk” the opposition says. Well…watch then that “feminine” beast..I mean, touch.

I really wish our “government” and “media” would spend as much time on the opioid/heroin/meth epidemic, suicide epidemic, illegal wars, genocides as they did on these false flag shootings.
The fact that they don’t tells you exactly who they work for and what the agenda is.
They’re all involved, the media, CIA/MOSSAD, “deep state”, they’re all working for the same international criminal bankster cabal.
Quit giving kids pills that scramble their brains, turn them into homicidal/suicidal zombies.
Where are the protests, outrage and media frenzy over the real issues?

Funny that they always go right to the gun grab, they really want a repeat of the Bolshevik ethnic cleansing in Russia, gun owners are in the way of that.
The fact that they are still lying about 9/11 and JFK tell you everything you need to know.
End the Fed scam!

I don’t know his biological background. He’s quoted as saying that his mother was a Jew and that he was glad he’d never met her. But he’s obviously barking mad so there doesn’t seem to me to be much reason to believe him.

Usually there’s no point fulminating about such horrors but this time it does seem reasonable to point a finger at the FBI. Just too busy attempting a coup d’état, eh? When did they become such a menace to the American people? Slick Willie’s presidency? Long before?

Funny, a few days ago I quipped, in response to Big Media claims (based on 4chan trolling) that Cruz is a “white supremacist,” that as far as I’m concerned and until I hear otherwise, Cruz is a crypto-Jew (Latin world is crawling with Marranos and their descendants).

What we need is permitless CCW in all 50 states. That would put a lot more guns on the streets of Chicago to deal with the street scum.

If I were running Chicago, I’d be a lot more worried about typical citizens with guns than gangsters. The gangs will shoot each other, deal drugs, and otherwise leave everyone else alone. But normal citizens might do something crazy, like athens in ’46 or Wilmington in ’98.

What we need is permitless CCW in all 50 states. That would put a lot more guns on the streets of Chicago to deal with the street scum.

I'm for local control on these matters. Places like Detroit, Chicago, and Baltimore might well do best with a targeted stop-frisk-confiscate regime that takes illegal guns out of the hands of criminals faster than they can replace them.

That's hard to do with no legal barriers to gun ownership (though I suppose these days some kind of biometric establishment of ID is close at hand, if not here already).

Most murder victims get killed by their friends, relatives, co-workers and neighbors, so be careful what you ask for.

Most of them are young black males, too. "Co-workers" and "neighbors" may be used somewhat loosely here.

In 2011, in incidents of murder for which the relationships of murder victims and offenders were known, 54.3 percent were killed by someone they knew (acquaintance, neighbor, friend, boyfriend, etc.); 24.8 percent of victims were slain by family members. The relationship of murder victims and offenders was unknown in 44.1 percent of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter incidents in 2011. (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 10.)

Right; Shitavious knew Rayvon, etc.

“Places like Detroit, Chicago, and Baltimore might well do best with a targeted stop-frisk-confiscate regime that takes illegal guns out of the hands of criminals faster than they can replace them.”

Good in theory but it sounds like the thin end of the wedge to me. It places too much trust in governments who have already proven that they cannot be trusted. They (those who buy governments) ultimately want your rights, liberties and wealth and their greed and lust for power is boundless. Much too much to lose in my opinion.

Bad news especially for myself a Michigander. I have a well-heeled German guitar buddy who had three new Gibsons sent to him from the US to the tune of 20 grand, he could have ordered them through a german dealer, said he felt better having them come directly from the US. Just about every european Jazz guitar player plays a Gibson, from Spain to Russia.I have played with oodles of Jazz Guitar players and they alway played a Gibson.Aside from this , my step-dad was partners with Leo Fender 1946, after his discharge from the navy, in Long Beach Ca. They put their money together along with one other guy who's name escapes me, and started Fender, anyway my dad sold out, fifties, to leo for 150 grand, and Leo, according to my dad, fucked him out of four million bucks through the impending, already negotiated, sale of Fender, of which he did not inform my dad.Whenever we would be somewhere with a band playing Fender instruments, he, my dad, would go over the whole sad story of being betrayed by a so-called friend.

Huh? Just what particular aspect of the "history" of Gibson would convince Jazz players to refrain from playing a Gibson?The Les Paul Jazz models being the non-plus-ultra instruments of competent Jazz artists. Or perhaps you are unaware of the guitar even being a Jazz instrument.Close to all competent Jazz guitarists played/play Gibson, including the guy I am now working with, who owns a beautiful model from 1947, which he could sell daily for a huge profit.

PS : Of course the best classic guitars are made in Spain, however Spanish jazz players also prefer Gibson, I have an American buddy, a Jazz player, who lives close to Gibralter and he plays a : Gibson.

It is not often that I find John Derbyshire’s wit and readable quirkiness making way for intellectual sloppiness. It’s the way Amercans are and they are just not going to change! Like they didn’t change on Prohibition, or anal sex in its
various legal aspects or…. but let’s make the really telling observation that, as JD has just pointed out, the law has changed in state after state over a generation or two in favour of irresponsible dangerous gun availability. It’s certainly not impossible for public opinion to change again. Supposing a core of activists started a few states on the process of chipping away intelligently at a dozen peripheral improvements,which could be presumed to have caused most of the fall in gun deaths, that young people who had never owned guns could take up the cause and push through changes over 15 years or so (I don’t pretend at this moment to be able to predict confidently which changes eill prove crucial but it might turn out to be taxes or maybe the screwing up of inconvenience or…).

Steve Sailer put me on to the reason that 2nd Amendment advocates keep winning, despite the left's general dominance, when he made an observation about the side with profit motive to its advantage usually winning. I think he was talking about immigration, where this definitely holds true; America's borders have been held open for 50+ years because cheap labor is in the oligarchs' interests.

Rightists happen to be on the profit side of the gun issue. Make money producing guns? Donate time and money to 2A advocacy. Make money selling guns? Donate time and money to 2A advocacy. Make a pastime of buying guns and ammo? Donate time and money to 2A advocacy.

The other side has no industry, no profit motive to back them. Sure, producers of alternatives to guns theoretically have a motive, but 2A advocacy people would crush them if they sided with gun-grabbers; 2A people are their natural customer base.

All the gun-grabbers have is cat ladies and busybodies who want to take peoples' toys away and trample the Founders' vision.

All the passion is on the 2A advocates' side, and it's year-round, not just flaring up when a shooting hits Big Media.

TL;DR version: what would an anti-gun club even look like? What would they do for fun?

I agree with you a lot, Svigor, even on some of the further-up comments of yours under this post. However, no, it’s not the gun/ammo industry that keeps the 2nd Amendment alive. That whole industry is miniscule compared to just one like Big-Ag, with your example of their pushing for immigration.

The 2nd Amendment is still around because gun-owners have fought for 50 years against the forces that have, only partially successfully, tried to gut the principal of the right to keep and bear arms. Yes, some of them, the “Fudds”, that just want to be able to keep their shotguns, fight only for their own small cause, and others for other reasons. However, the NRA and probably 10 times as many people as it’s membership, vote and influence local politicians pretty well.

Some D’s have admitted that Al Gore lost the election due to his distain for this most important right of all. As far as the gun industry, sometime around the same time, Smith and Wesson, the iconic handgun maker (OK, one of them) betrayed gun owners with some statement or company policy. They almost went bankrupt due to that.

Just about every european Jazz guitar player plays a Gibson, from Spain to Russia.

Really bizarre considering the history of the guitar.

” Really bizarre considering the history of the guitar”

Huh? Just what particular aspect of the “history” of Gibson would convince Jazz players to refrain from playing a Gibson?
The Les Paul Jazz models being the non-plus-ultra instruments of competent Jazz artists.
Or perhaps you are unaware of the guitar even being a Jazz instrument.
Close to all competent Jazz guitarists played/play Gibson, including the guy I am now working with, who owns a beautiful model from 1947, which he could sell daily for a huge profit.

PS : Of course the best classic guitars are made in Spain, however Spanish jazz players also prefer Gibson, I have an American buddy, a Jazz player, who lives close to Gibralter and he plays a : Gibson.

Oh, on the hysterics, consider the possibility that Big Media is firing for maximum effect because they need something to distract from their recent immigration failures, and from the damage their Russia Hoax Narrative has suffered.

I agree with you a lot, Svigor, even on some of the further-up comments of yours under this post. However, no, it’s not the gun/ammo industry that keeps the 2nd Amendment alive. That whole industry is miniscule compared to just one like Big-Ag, with your example of their pushing for immigration.

The 2nd Amendment is still around because gun-owners have fought for 50 years against the forces that have, only partially successfully, tried to gut the principal of the right to keep and bear arms. Yes, some of them, the “Fudds”, that just want to be able to keep their shotguns, fight only for their own small cause, and others for other reasons. However, the NRA and probably 10 times as many people as it’s membership, vote and influence local politicians pretty well.

Some D’s have admitted that Al Gore lost the election due to his distain for this most important right of all. As far as the gun industry, sometime around the same time, Smith and Wesson, the iconic handgun maker (OK, one of them) betrayed gun owners with some statement or company policy. They almost went bankrupt due to that.

Right, but the whole thing is about being for something, not against. Pro-gun people have a culture to rally around, a sport and a hobby to rally around, an industry to rally around, a profit motive to rally around. What do gun-grabbers have? Nothing. They got wrinkly old Soros, and Big Media hot air. There’s no money in gun-grabbing; the second they win, the money stops flowing.

As for the scale of the pro-gun lobby, they’re a 300 lb gorilla compared to their opponents.

“Places like Detroit, Chicago, and Baltimore might well do best with a targeted stop-frisk-confiscate regime that takes illegal guns out of the hands of criminals faster than they can replace them.”

Good in theory but it sounds like the thin end of the wedge to me. It places too much trust in governments who have already proven that they cannot be trusted. They (those who buy governments) ultimately want your rights, liberties and wealth and their greed and lust for power is boundless. Much too much to lose in my opinion.

You make a good point. Truth is I don’t care what those places do. But that’s what I tell people when they advocate federal gun-grabbing in response to local crime problems: “clean up your back yard, my back yard is fine. Don’t trample my rights because you can’t handle yours. You and your precious diversity have fun with it.” The fact is, local legislative solutions are way more doable, but leftists can’t even push those through.

I’ve only spent 7 weeks in the USA – but that’s 7 weeks more than the average US citizen has spent outside the USA – and you people came cross as both desperately stupid and desperately ignorant. I see that you’re supporting the very accurate stereotype.

Compared to whom?

Your problem is probably that only stupid, ignorant Americans would hang out with you.

Strict gun control in America is impossible because the gun lobby pays tens of millions of dollars to congressmen to keep them away from voting for stricter gun control laws. It’s as simple as that.
Talk about corruption, legalized corruption no less. Legalized bribing and bribe-taking.

Innocent lives be damned, as long as the gun industry can sell guns to make money, and congressmen can pocket tens of millions of dollars of bribery from the gun industry.

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OH WTF!!!PLEASE!
Some Chinese tourist stealing a log compared to the crime of Cholos and Hood rats in US urban population centers?
I live in Asia and I've lived in the US. I've been chased by Hood Rats simply for walking past a Section 8 at night. I've accidentally crossed the paths of Br...

Those who are incapable of self-critique can never improve. Jews and blacks are that way. Any criticism at all towards them as a group, even if perfectly legit, draws immediate outcry and rejection as anti-Semitism or racism. It's how they got to where they are today, hated by more each day as th...

There are lots of YouTube vloggers from the west who live in Asia due to the lower cost of living and relative safety -- they realize they can save lots of money as expats. Some call themselves "digital nomads". Most have western girlfriends/wives. They travel as couples.

I've got a better idea. How about if we just ban all non-Western immigration altogether? East Asia will always be East Asia, their culture and our culture are incompatible. The only thing that makes them better than the Jews and Indians is they are not power hungry and are usually apolitical. Unf...

My impression is that Italians are indeed not so hot at soldiering or delivering mail on time but pretty good at chasing women and playing music. They take 2 hour lunches in southern Italy. I'm on my way! F*ck this Ice People sh*t!

Once again, the APPers unite. Also, you're a functional illiterate who did not understand my response to Radical Center.
Also, my point that many commentators are Western males involved with Asian women, RCCers who accept black/Asian priests-popes, and insane anti-Semites is proven once again...

the remaining Member States can simply dump the refugees on Britain Exactly how? The already in-place megaminorities, mostly Subcontinental currybashers, will throw a bluey.
They saw the now-sabotaged Brexit as a chance to wedge the door open to each of their own particular Former Empire/Commonw...

Attend a few rallies with antifa and get your pate cracked open. THEN sing the praises of not wearing helmets or "riot gear."
Should the Allies have worn Brooks Brothers suits when facing Japanese-German-Italian soldiers?

Many working middle class white males just move to Asia (Depending upon their skill-set) so that they can get away from Blacks and Mestizos and Whiggers.
A great many white males just move abroad to live in a society that has a relatively low level of crime and no "Public Freakouts" at Popeye'...

Commentators like Jeff Stryker, Radical Center, a couple of the Anonymous, are Western men involved with Asian women. Hence their praise of Asians as being the best race. Their attacks on Western people is caused by their racial degeneration.
Jews have high intermarriage rates with blacks/...

Why are you commenting on Sicilians and other Europeans? You have a Chinese wife and Chinese offspring. You stated that your Chinese sons are learning some Chinese language and travel to Taiwan. You have chosen a side and it is not Western.

Some of the comments in here by individuals claiming one ethnic group or another is something they are not are irrelevant nonsense. And this Jeff Stryker chap is a anti European Jew I suspect. As to a polar alliance between Europeans European Diasporas and East Asians well there are more than en...

You're conflating race and culture. The youtube videos are all about mainland Chinese who suffered through decades of communism and came out socially retarded.
For socially retarded whites, see Russian tourists in Thailand.
For socially well adapted Chinese tourists, see Singaporeans, Malay...

"Nice false dilemma fallacy you got there. Be a shame if something happened to it…"
Hostility by nativists toward the Italians is other than false, padrone.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZJu8PICFMUs/T2ejOjQapcI/AAAAAAAAAQg/S7pA4-w_LpQ/s1600/Italianpolitical.jpg
https://www.history.com/news...

RadicalCenter, as much as I appreciate your post let me edify you on Sicilians. Sicily has as complex a gene pool as the rest of Italy. There are Nordic types in Sicily and of course the majority being Med types like most of Italy south of Rome and even big swaths in the North. Still the Sicil...